


Undertale - Risen Child

by Mouko, Yuki



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Determination, Drama, Family, Friendship, Gen, Horror, Supernatural Elements, Time Loop, True Reset
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-06
Updated: 2017-05-28
Packaged: 2018-05-05 07:35:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 27,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5366723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mouko/pseuds/Mouko, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yuki/pseuds/Yuki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Even a True Reset doesn’t mean that everything that happened is erased.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It was a beautiful summer day, a perfect day for the beach. The sun was shining high in the blue sky, with fluffy cotton-candy clouds that idly drifted by. Ocean surface glistened as waves gently lapped at the shore, toying with the soft white sand. It was no wonder why the shore was crowded, filled with people of all shapes and sizes.

And species.

Although it had been years since they reemerged from the underground, monsters were still seen with some trepidation by much of humanity. One group comprised almost entirely of monsters barely paid attention to the stares they got, but instead took advantage of some of the humans making themselves scarce to have fun on one of the best spots on the beach.

The only human member of the group got as many odd looks as the monsters for carrying a pot containing a large talking golden flower to the beach and setting it up on one of the beach chairs. Frisk was more focused on making sure Flowey would be comfortable and enjoy himself as best he could rather than whether or not someone was going to make a scene. There was no question that a scene was going to happen eventually, so they might as well all have fun first.

After all, if there was a scene to be had, Flowey would be the first to make it.

“Water, dirt, and sky, _wowie_ ,” Flowey said, with a bright smile dripping with false enthusiasm. “Just like _everywhere else_. I’m _so_ glad you dragged me all the way here with the rest of your stupid _friends_.”

Frisk gave Flowey’s petals an affectionate pat as she remained crouched by his side a little longer. Although she wore a swimsuit that was unisex, making it a little less covering than a wetsuit but with more colors, the years had filled out her body in ways that made it difficult to mistake her gender once she had become a teenager.

“I wasn’t going to leave you behind,” Frisk said, her voice as soft as ever before she placed a delicate kiss on the petal she just pet.

Flowey paused at that before he puffed out his flushed cheeks, his petals rattling. “You’re such an _idiot_.”

Frisk merely giggled in response with a beaming smile on her face. Flowey had come a long way since she carried him unwillingly out of the underground. Seeing traces of affection in his words and expression, however small, filled her with _determination_.

“See, I told you he’d like it here,” Sans said while lounging in the beach chair next to Flowey. No one had seen when he had sat down, but the group was used to the big boned skeleton simply being in unexpected places the moment they didn’t pay attention. Although he was dressed in swim trunks and rubber sandals, he still wore his battered blue hoodie.

“Ah, _breathe_ that ocean air _deep_ into your lungs!” Papyrus said, triumphantly posturing with his hands on his hips and his usual boney smile on his face. He wore a full-suit old-time bathing suit, yellow with black stripes, and sunblock underneath his eyes, smeared directly on his cheekbones. “ _Feel_ that sun on your skin ! It almost makes me wish I _had_ either one! Nyeh heh heh heh heh!”

Undyne tossed the beach gear she had been carrying in one arm before setting down a very flustered Alphys who she had tucked under her other arm. “Finally! It’s been a while since we got someplace wet enough.”

The words did little to help Alphys’ intense blush, nor did being pressed up against Undyne’s exposed, muscular midriff. She could feel the heat of Undyne’s body even through her long robe, barely covering her one-piece gray swimsuit.

Undyne set Alphys down before stretching her arms over her head, causing her orange tank top to raise a little. She flashed a smile full of razor sharp teeth when she noticed where her blushing girlfriend was looking. “So you ready to take that stupid robe off, or am I going to have to do it for you?”

“Um, ah… oh,” Alphys’ cheeks turned a deep shade of red as she fidgeted beneath Undyne’s stare, before she reluctantly removed her robe. After all, there was no guarantee it’d survive the fish warrior’s ‘attempt’. Her tail twitched behind her as she fidgeted with the robe in her hand, her knees bowing towards each other anxiously.

Undyne unabashedly raked her gaze across Alphys’ body with a wide smile. “Much better.”

Despite the heat and a fur coat, Toriel was quite comfortable thanks to her mastery over fire-based magic. The gentle breeze toyed with the edges of the floral patterned dress she wore and prompted her to hold her wide-brimmed straw hat closer to her head so it wouldn’t fly off. The fact that her horns pierced through the top of the hat made it unlikely to fly away, but she preferred to be careful. “My child?” she asked in a sweet tone as she approached Frisk. “Did you remember to put on enough sunscreen?”

Frisk nodded, but submitted to Toriel’s insistence to slather on add on another layer of sunblock on her face. Despite how many teenagers her age might object to such protective displays, she never got tired of it.

Flowey watched the exchange from his position in his pot, peering at the two out of the corners of his eyes. After a moment, he turned away with a snort. “Big baby.”

The words called Toriel’s attention to the grouchy flower. “Do you have enough fresh water, Flowey?”

Flowey paused at that before he fidgeted, bobbing his head from side to side. “Oh, um. Yeah.”

“Good,” Toriel said with a smile as she finished wiping a dab of sunscreen on Frisk’s nose, which caused the human to giggle softly. “It’s going to be hot today, and the last thing we want is for either of you to get sick.”

Asgore watched the exchange as he kept his distance from Toriel, his expression wistful. He wore a pair of green swim trunks with white trim, nothing too spectacular for the king of monsters. But then, he rarely thought of himself as particularly _spectacular_ to begin with. After several long moments, he turned his gaze to look across the ocean at the horizon, his brow furrowing. “...It’s really a lovely day. The perfect day for an outing.”

“Yes, it really is~!” a new voice chimed in.

Watching the scene from atop one of the sea walls was a young girl with short brown hair, rosy cheeks, bright red eyes, and an even brighter smile. She was overdressed for the beach, in her brown khaki pants or long-sleeve green shirt with a yellow stripe through the center. And yet, she didn’t mind. It didn’t matter, after all.

It’s not as if she could feel anything. Not the sun, not the breeze, not even the very wall she sat upon. She couldn’t feel any of it. While that may have bothered someone else, it didn’t bother her. It didn’t even bother her that no one could see her, that people passed straight by her without a single glance, or a seagull hopping along the top of the wall and going straight through her in pursuit of scraps. None of that bothered her in the slightest.

She was far beyond being concerned with such stupid things.

The young girl giggled as she tilted her head. “You’re having so much fun, aren’t you, Frisk? And why wouldn’t you? Surrounded by everyone you love on such a beautiful day… it’s only natural, isn’t it?”

The young girl continued to smile as she watched Frisk laughing, running along the shoreline with Papyrus under the watchful eyes of her guardians.

_Toriel was bleeding dust from her mouth, the side of her face, and a massive gash along her side. She gaped, as if completely stunned at what had just happened. “Y… you… really hate me that much?” Her voice quivered with disbelief as dust flowed freely from her wounds, as did her very life._

_A mighty blow knocked Papyrus’ head clean off his neck, causing it to fall to the floor as the rest of his body dissolved into dust and blew away in the wind. “W-well. That’s not what I expected… but… st-still! I believe in you!”_

Chara’s smile widened, amusement dancing in her eyes.

_Undyne’s head bowed against her heavy armor as her body slowly disintegrated despite her unfathomable will keeping it together so long. “Damn it… so even THAT power… It wasn’t enough?” Somehow she remained standing, forcing a smile until the end as her body dissolved to dust at a pace that was nothing less than agonizing._

_Sparks danced across the ridiculously flamboyant metallic body of Mettaton as he struck one final dramatic pose. “Gh… Guess you don’t want to join my fan club…?” The look on his face made it clear that the mouthy robot had more to say in his final moments, but the damage had been too severe, setting off an explosion that silenced the star for good._

Chara straightened up, kicking her feet idly as she tilted her head back and enjoyed imagining the feeling of the breeze against her back.

_The first blow to finally hit home silenced Sans’ cocky words for good. Though he kept the smile on his face the entire time, his eyes said it all as he looked down at red liquid seeping from the new his shirt onto his hand and through his smiling teeth. His heavy breathing only grew harsher as the only thing keeping his weak body together was sheer force of will. “So... guess that's it, huh?”_

Oh, but it didn’t end there. Even after the skeleton crumbled to dust, she hadn’t been satisfied, not after how many times she had died and reset because his tricks that broke the rules of the game and awakened her greatest opponent, forcing her to show mercy against her will.

The sheer rage she felt at losing control for even an instant grew a thousandfold in the wake of his mockery of that particular death; it was enough of a motivation to restart even after victory again and again and _again_. The fact that Sans somehow managed to deduce the number of her deaths from her expression was more than enough reason to make him notice _his_ in return.

_“That expression that you’re wearing…” Although Sans was an enigmatic monster, there was an unmistakable sense of unease to his words, fear he tried to mask with cockiness as the light disappeared from his eyes. “You’re really kind of a freak, huh?”_

There was nothing quite as sweet as killing Sans ten times for every time he killed her. Even his ability to observe changes to the time-space continuum had their limits.

The feeling of Sans’ bones crunching beneath her knife, sight of him ‘bleeding’ - she always suspected it was just ketchup - as the light drained from his glowing eye, the sound of the skeleton calling to his long-dead brother before dissolving into dust - it was a soothing symphony for her soul, the perfect remedy for her rage. She had heard it many times, she had repeated it so _many_ times, and she never tired of it. It was still _beautiful_.

As beautiful as a bright summer day.

It was almost a flawless victory. All that was left was to kill Asgore then finish off Flowey in an appropriately grisly manner to repay foolish Asriel for ruining all her fun the first time around.

But Chara never made it to the throne room after killing Sans. One last reset took her back to the very beginning. At first, it seemed like a mistake, one that merely meant she had to kill everyone again, but it wasn’t to be. It was in that final reset intended to start just one more fight with Sans before she moved on, Frisk had made a wish that undid all her hard work.

Ever since then, the real battle waged between Chara and Frisk for control of Frisk’s body. The girl who had thrown herself into a pit near the top of Mount Ebott and gave up on life fought to make choices that would save others, even if that meant starting over from the beginning over and over.

Flowey taunted them again and again, knowing about each one of those resets, but not about the war waging inside of Frisk’s body. He didn’t understand what was going on, questioning and mocking Chara’s motivation repeatedly when she didn’t have enough control to properly reply to him. He didn’t understand _anything_ , not even after Chara let Frisk win and finally made Asriel aware that it wasn’t just _her_ in that body toying with reality.

But then, Asriel always was such a stupid boy. He never understood anything before, so why start now?

In the end, Flowey didn’t matter. Neither did Toriel, Papyrus, Undyne, Mettaton, or _Sans_. Not even Asgore, who she never had the chance to properly _kill_ and add to her body count, was important. None of them truly mattered to Chara.

Her feelings for them couldn’t even remotely compare to what she felt for _Frisk_.

Chara’s smile became impossibly wide, twisting across her face as her red eyes focused with intensity on Frisk. She leaned forward, hopping down off the wall seconds before it disappeared, as if dissolving into the darkness that appeared around her.

Flowing like a flood, the darkness consumed everything it touched - the sand, the beach, and even the people who stood oblivious to the approaching threat. Sans barely finished a noisy sip of his fruity drink before he was gone, the slurping sound lingering for a moment after. Papyrus let out a triumphant shout as he tossed his beach ball, only for _both_ to appear into nothingness.

Undyne and Alphys - they disappeared without resistance. Not even the mighty king and queen were spared, both so focused on Frisk that they never saw it coming - not that they would have even suspected such a thing.

Frisk herself was left for last, as the whole world around her vanished into the void before the darkness converged upon her. She disappeared into the flood with no protest, the smile still on her face.

Chara giggled as she stood alone in the vast void that had consumed the world, smothering all life in an instant.

Well, _almost_ alone.

“Hi.”

Chara paused before her expression became bored. She didn’t bother to look over her shoulder as Flowey rose from the darkness as though it were soil some distance away, the only thing in this empty space that hadn’t been swept away with everything else.

Flowey smiled tentatively. “Seems as if everyone is perfectly happy-”

The words died in Flowey’s throat as the distance between them evaporated in an instant. Chara was suddenly close to him, way too close, her twisted face hovering only inches away from his own. No longer rosey cheeked with a cute and innocent smile, her eyes were now blackened pits oozing with dark blood, with even more flowing from her now impossibly wide mouth. Despite the ruin of her face, which was not that much different than how she looked when she died, she was still smiling, only it was now a hellish expression.

“Hello, _Asriel_.” Chara said, her voice sharper than her favorite knife.

Flowey was caught frozen, staring at the human he thought he knew so well. After a long, tense moment, he finally turned away, his petals drooping a bit as he grimaced.

Chara’s horrific grin disappeared the instant Flowey looked away, reverting her face back to its rosey, innocent charm. She giggled as she reached up to cover her now bloodless mouth, her smile still ever present.

“I'm sorry,” Flowey murmured, his voice weak and quivering a little, showing traces of the boy he used to be before he became a flower. Even without a soul, being in Chara’s presence left him feeling the way he did a long time ago when they both fell together. “You've probably heard this-”

“ _Yes_ ,” Chara said, interrupting the flower and causing him to cringe. “I _have_. Many, many, _many_ times.”

Flowey finally raised his head to stare at Chara, trying to read her past the oppressive aura of futility that hung in the air between them. The fallen human’s expression gave nothing for the flower to work with, not even a hint of her thoughts. She always smiled and laughed at anything, and only now did he realize just how little it truly revealed of her heart.

Finally, Flowey sighed and discarded the speech he had planned. There was no point to it if Chara knew what he was going to say and was going to erase everything for her own purposes anyway.

There was no point in anything at all.

“Well, that's all, then,” Flowey murmured. “See you later… Chara.”

Chara kept her gaze on the usually mouthy flower as he finally went silent, drooping before her, before he retreated down into the darkness like the coward he was.

It was the same, it was _always_ the same. Asriel talked big, but he never truly backed any of it up. He had no backbone, no strength to fight her. Even now, when Chara stood to take everything away from him, he offered only a pitiful resistance before capitulating to her. He would always ask her to erase his memories, as well - running away both mentally and physically. It was _always_ the same.

...Except for that _one time_.

Chara’s jaw clenched, the muscles tightening. And then, just as quickly as it had happened, she relented and her smile slowly relaxed.

Not now. Not _yet_. It wasn’t time. Flowey would get his punishment, but not yet. He was nothing more than a bit character, a side dish to her main course.

She had someone else in her sights, someone _important_.

“Of course,” Chara said, her voice as saccharine as her smile. “See you later, _Asriel_.”

And then, there was nothing.


	2. Chapter 2

The underground looked just like it always had - a massive, dark cave. All light came from artificial sources, magical in nature; it was the only thing that kept the monsters from living in complete darkness. The only place that ever experienced real sunlight was the small field of flowers planted at the bottom of Mt. Ebott’s gaping hole. The precious rays of light filtered down through the opening, gracing the lucky flowers with genuine light as they grew on the cave floor.

Toriel had planted the flowers there long ago, for reasons that were her own. It wasn’t hard to imagine why, as the lush flower bed had saved the lives of several humans as they found themselves plunging to the depths of monster hell.

But more than that, the flowers served as a marker for Chara’s grave.

Chara gave a thoughtful hum as she stared up at the ceiling, through the massive hole. It brought back many memories, of when she first made her trek to the realm of the monsters. There hadn’t been any flowers to break _her_ fall.

It had hurt like _hell_.

Chara grinned as she let out a soft giggle. She had survived, though with quite a few injuries to her credit. The fact that she survived at all was a testament to her determination, as she would never allow something as insignificant as _pain_ as to stop her.

The fallen child doubted Toriel truly understood how _helpful_ the flowers had been to Chara and her needs. Her ‘mother’ had done it as a memorial for her departed daughter, and to make sure no other humans shared her fate. It served its purpose well, _very_ well. It kept the humans that Chara had called in from _dying instantly_.

After all, it would’ve been a huge inconvenience for them to die _in the ruins_.

“Seven human souls,” Chara murmured as she closed her eyes. Technically, they _should_ have only needed six, as her soul should have counted as the seventh. But after everything her ‘father’ and his nerd lizard friend had done to it, her soul had been stretched far too thin to be of much use anymore.

But that was fine. Something far more interesting came from her soul, from her _determination_ , being used in such a way. It had opened doors that Chara didn’t even _think_ were possible, opportunities that fell into her lap with no one the wiser. And she was in no rush, no deadline to gathering the souls she needed.

Besides, the journey was part of the fun. Chara had quite a bit of _fun_ seeing how far she could go with each human, and how much trouble they could cause as she guided them to their deaths. Most, particularly the first few attempts, hadn’t even made it to Asgore, though he collected their souls all the same. It was fun trying to avoid the eager little beavers, and the suspense of which monster would actually get lucky and land the killing blow was _always_ enjoyable. By the end, she had gotten rather good at getting past the peons and facing her ‘father’ himself. The look of anguish on his face as he was forced to kill a child had been _beautiful_. It reminded her of his anguish when _she_ had died, and unlike then, she was actually in a position to enjoy it.

Chara would have owed Alphys some gratitude if she didn’t find her so pathetic.

Besides, during her runs with Frisk, it had always been Alphys who had ruined her fun by evacuating everyone. Watching through the cameras like the delusional voyeur she was, the lizard would always see Chara massacring the ones unlucky enough to be caught unaware and quickly whisk away the rest. Chara's body counts were much lower than she would have liked thanks to the good 'doctor' and her meddling. Chara never even got the opportunity to properly ‘thank’ her, as Alphys was far too cowardly to confront her directly - she would always send her robot to his death, instead.

Chara imagined that once Alphys knew just what her experiments with the young girl's soul had wrought, the _full_ extent of it, the scientist would no longer hesitate to do what she should’ve done a long time ago. The sheer weight of Alphys’ actions would hang around her neck like a noose, one of the coward’s own making. The lizard, and Asgore, should _never_ have underestimated the power of _her_ soul, of _her_ determination. What was hers would _always_ be hers, and that was a lesson that even Flowey and Frisk would soon learn.

Chara simply couldn’t _wait_.

“Speaking of which,” Chara said. She lowered her graze, her piercing red eyes focusing on the far entry way. It was the doorway that lead to Flowey, and where he had spent his days skulking about. No doubt he had already noticed Chara's arrival, especially since it was always marked with her determination overpowering his, and the powers he had _stolen_ from her returning to where it rightfully belonged.

But she wasn’t interested in Flowey, not yet.

Soft movement appeared in the entryway, nigh invisible against the darkness to the point that one would only see it if they were specifically looking for it. And then, eyes - a multitude of eyes - appeared in the darkness, like little pinpricks of light against the blackness. The eyes focused on Chara, who in turn returned the gaze with one of her own.

Chara’s smile widened. “Let’s get down to business, shall we~?”

 

\---

 

The first thing Frisk saw when she opened her eyes was the gaping maw of the hole she fell through from the surface so long ago. As soft as the bed of golden flowers beneath her felt against her skin, she had long since realized that it was almost certainly magic that kept her alive after this and every other fall she had taken in the realm of the monsters.

The sight was so painfully familiar, but there was no comforting sense of nostalgia to it.

_Back here again…,_ Frisk thought with a weary sigh as she raised a hand to the sky, focusing on just how small it was. Although she had spent far more years than she could count in the underground in a never ending time loop, somehow the few years she had been allowed to grow on the surface made her forget what it was like to be this size.

After so long without a reset, Frisk thought for sure that maybe, just maybe, she was done. All the times she wished she could save Asriel along with everyone else… In those moments of weakness, she always came back here to start all over again, but she never found any way to prevent him from changing back to Flowey.

Frisk thought she had finally accepted it, that the best thing she could do for Asriel was to take Flowey from the underground and use her determination to teach him to love again. She knew she was getting through to him, bit by bit, and she was so careful not to wish to try again; she tried so hard to live and enjoy each moment rather than rob everyone of their happy ending one more time.

Even the dark presence haunting her had finally gone silent after an eternity of struggling with her nearly every second of the day. Now, Frisk could see that it was foolish to think Chara had given up, or at least gotten bored with all the resets and the ‘game’ they were playing. The demon simply waited a lot longer this time for an opportunity to reset.

Frisk brought her hand over her heart and squeezed her chest as tears trickled down her cheeks. The pain she felt now after losing so much more than any other reset was undoubtedly exactly what Chara wanted.

“You’re so cruel,” Frisk whispered into the darkness.

The sound of her voice startled Frisk, and her brown eyes flew open wide. Instantly, she bolted upright. “I… I can speak freely? Without prompts?”

It might have been a while since Frisk was back underground, but one thing she knew for certain was that the possession rendered her almost entirely mute, save for a few key moments. She suspected that it was because of two consciousnesses with equal determination fighting for control over her body and soul. The only times she could say whatever she wanted was after she went to the surface where Chara had far less control over her body.

As Frisk climbed to her feet and dashed away her tears, she found herself moving far more freely than ever before. She was almost too light, as though she had finally broken free of chains dragging her down. The feeling was equally exhilarating as it was terrifying, but this new freedom filled her with _determination_.

There was something else different; Frisk was certain of it. It felt as though the very fabric of the world had changed all around her somehow, but even as she looked around, everything still appeared to be exactly the same as it always had. The change felt important, significant, but it was completely beyond her grasp to explain.

Whatever had happened in this last reset, it had changed _everything_.

As Frisk made her way towards the next room, she wondered if this meant that everyone would still repeat the same actions they made before. Would they have some memory of the surface beyond an inexplicable photograph? Would the Flowey greeting her be the same one that knew nothing of love and kindness, or would he actually _remember_ the surface and his brief time as Asriel again? She could only wait and see what happened next as she went through the old familiar motions.

Of all the decisions that lay ahead of her to make there was one thing Frisk knew for certain - if Flowey was the old Flowey yet again, she was _not_ going to fall for his ‘friendliness pellets.’

When Frisk entered the next room, she had to pause in the doorway at the sight of the smiling yellow flower on top of the small hill of grass. His saccharine expression said it all; nothing had changed for him even in the slightest.

Frisk felt her heart give a painful twist as all the time they spent together underground and on the surface drifted through her mind, all the pain and healing Asriel went through again and again, only for a reset to take away not only his memories, but leave his heart as empty as when they first met.

It wasn’t fair.

Words failed Frisk as she approached the falsely friendly flower so that they could have their first meeting all over again.

“Howdy!” Flowey said, cheerfully with the same faux cheer that was harder for Frisk to stomach each time she heard it. “I’m Flowey, Flowey the Flow-”

“Asriel!” Frisk blurted out as a tide of emotions came crashing over her. “Can’t you remember me at all?”

It was a mistake to reveal so much. Frisk knew it even as Flowey’s expression shifted from shock to a warped smile that was even more fake than the last, but far more menacing.

“You…,” Flowey said in a gravelly voice, his eyes now blackened pits that bore through Frisk. “You know what’s going on here, don’t you?”

Knowing that it was too late to take back the hand she had revealed, Frisk instead chose to move forward. “Asriel… I know right now you can’t feel anything but hate and sadness and loneliness, but-”

Flowey interrupted Frisk with a twisted cackle. “You don’t know anything! Don’t think just because you know… _that_ name means you’re anything special. That smiling trashbag must have gotten to you before I did, didn’t he? I knew I should have-”

“No!” Frisk shouted, feeling her eyes sting with frustrated tears she forced not to fall. “Why does this keep happening? Why do you remember everything except learning how to love again? I’m your friend, Frisk. We’ve been through so much together, but every time… _every time…_ ”

Frisk furiously wiped away the wetness from her eyes with the sleeve of her old, well-worn sweater so that she could stare directly into Flowey’s eyes, searching for some tiny glint of Asriel still left inside the golden flower. “Why do you only forget changing back to Asriel? Why do you only forget when we become a _family_?”

A war was being waged on Flowey’s face as Frisk’s words pierced through him. Eventually, however, his overly sweet smile returned, and he batted his eyes with faux innocence. “Golly, _family_? Really? Gosh, that changes _everything_.”

Frisk felt the tension creeping into her muscles, readying to start dodging the attack she just knew was coming next.

“Well, _pal_ ,” Flowey said, bobbing his head, “then you won’t mind doing me a favor…” His face twisted into something hideous, his voice distorting with malice, as a halo appeared around Frisk in the form of his signature circular attack. “...And give me your soul.”

Frisk waited for the world go go dark around her to signify the start of the battle, but the two of them simply stood there, squaring off. Her view of herself didn’t change and reduce itself to just her soul on an expanse of black, penned in by a border of white when it wasn’t choosing buttons, with the intimidating figure of a monster firing bullets at her from all around. She could feel Flowey glaring right through her, staring right into her soul. Just as he she noticed that the pellets weren’t a solid shade of white, but hovered with a glowing golden glow, they abruptly winked out of existence.

Flowey’s twisted sense of bravado disappeared as genuine fear came flooding in to replace it. “What did… _What did you do_?”

Frisk had no idea how to answer that question. The battle system had changed, or at least was absent, it would seem. What that meant for her upcoming conflicts, she wasn’t sure, but she knew that the ‘game’ had completely changed. She could only think of one other person with the power to upturn reality so completely; the same person who turned her entire world completely inside-out.

“Chara,” Frisk whispered.

Flowey flinched at the name, his petals folding back much like a cornered animal would cant its ears. He continued to stare at Frisk, straight through her to the brilliant light of her soul as it remained locked away securely inside her. The words this human spoke to him, this familiarity that even now she showed in the concerned gaze she fixed on him; it filled him with too many emotions to comprehend, and none of them good.

But it was the changing of the game entirely that sent Flowey retreating into the ground, completely abandoning his usual attempts to trick and murder Frisk.

Frisk felt mildly surprised that Flowey fled without so much as a sputter of protest or eerie barb meant to unsettle her. For someone like him, who was not unlike a god with his power to reset, having that power taken away and all the rules change at the same time must have been quite a blow. The only reason why she could deal with the changes so much better than he could was because she remembered how the world worked on the surface, and there were no buttons there to use or destroy there.

Perhaps that too was because of Chara.

Frisk had no doubt that Flowey would simply shadow her movements like he always did, looking for some sort of advantage to turn him into a god, especially now, but that was nothing new. Her worries focused on someone far, far worse than even the heartless Flowey could ever hope to be.

“What are you planning, Chara?” Frisk whispered, not expecting an answer.

A ghastly scream tore through the air and pierced Frisk’s heart. She took off running for the sound even before it fully sank in that she recognized the voice in such pain. “ _Mom!_ ”

Just through an ornate archway, Frisk found Toriel lying at the center of a familiar expansive room. Fallen red leaves scattered on the floor framed the boss monster like blood, making her look to be the victim of a crime scene, complete with a huge gash starting from her stomach and ending at her side.

There was no time for Frisk to think, only act. She tore the bandage off her wrist as she raced for Toriel’s side and slapped it onto the wound, praying that it would still work. As always, the small adhesive strip that she had used time and time again on the surface had somehow gained magical properties in the underground and disappeared after it was used one final time.

While Toriel’s torn dress remained unchanged, the wound it exposed was now closed, at least on the surface. There were signs of discoloration on her skin exposed by a large patch of missing fur, but Frisk hoped that would go away after she ate some food.

Frisk would steal the entire bowl of monster candy if that was what it took to save Toriel.

A low moan escaped Toriel as her eyes fluttered open. “Ohh…” As her gaze settled on Frisk, she recoiled from the little girl. “Chara-?!”

For a single moment, Frisk felt her heart stop as she saw the fear in Toriel’s eyes directed at _her_. Only Flowey had ever mistaken her for Chara before. No one else in the underground seemed to notice any resemblance between her and the fallen child, not Asgore and not Toriel.

Until now.

Toriel squeezed her eyes shut then opened them again to better focus on the young human in front of her. A myriad of emotions played across her face, going by too fast for Frisk to take in, before finally she furrowed her brow. “Oh… Forgive me, my child. I must have been dreaming.” Slowly, she rose to her feet with a smile to mask the discomfort she felt as she moved. “I am Toriel, guardian of the ruins.”

“Are you okay?” Frisk asked, sparing a brief glance to the empty room to verify that no one was there with them. “Did Chara do this to you?”

Sadness mingled with unease crept into Toriel’s smile. “No, no, I… I must have been dreaming after tripping down the stairs.” She looked back at the two staircases not that far behind her. “Yes…,” she muttered more to herself than Frisk, “that must’ve been what happened.”

The sight of that discolored patch of skin on Toriel’s stomach, completely bare of her soft white fur, only made what happened feel all the more real to Frisk. The wound was in the same spot. The exact same spot as every other time she died.

In her mind’s eye, Frisk relived all those deaths, how her mother’s dust coated her hands afterward and never went away. She felt so overcome with emotion that without considering the potential consequences, she threw her arms around Toriel and hugged her mother for dear life.

“Oh!” Toriel gasped, startled by the sudden action, but she didn’t hesitate to return the favor. “There, there, my child. It’s alright. There’s nothing to be afraid of. My magic can heal this wound as though it were never there at all, and I’ll use it to protect you, I promise.”

Frisk shook her head a little, but said nothing. It was a lie, not even one Toriel realized she was making, but a lie nonetheless. It was up to Frisk to save everyone, and no one could or would fight these battles for her. “Mom…”

Toriel’s eyes opened wide. “Huh? Did you just call me… ‘Mom’?” A bittersweet warmth filled her chest when Frisk mutely nodded, bringing a much more genuine smile to her face. “Well… I suppose… Would that make you happy? To call me… ‘Mother’?”

Frisk clutched Toriel’s dress tighter as she hid the tears that stung at her eyes. These were the same words as always, ones of a sweet woman who was flattered by a strange child who grew so quickly attached. She didn’t trust herself to speak right away, merely nodding, as the mother she loved so much had forgotten her completely.

Joy lit up Toriel’s face as she bent down to give Frisk a proper hug. “Well then, call me whatever you like!”

It was painful, but Frisk forced herself to swallow her true emotions and hide them away along with her tears as she smiled a little at Toriel. There was nothing she could do to make her mother remember all the precious moments that they shared. To the queen of the monsters, she was a helpless, scared, and lost little human child who was going to be the target of every monster she came across. To make her seem like anything more risked making Toriel fear her and destroying their precious bond. Just one glimpse of the fear in Toriel’s eyes alone was more painful than any death she ever experienced.

Frisk did nothing to resist as Toriel took her by the hand and led her along through the ruins at a pace that was far more brisk than usual. She did her best to stop thinking about what she had lost and focus on the present. Even if her mother didn’t want to accept it, Toriel _had_ been attacked, and the culprit was only all too obvious.

_What did you do, Chara?_ Frisk thought as she scanned the room with a sense of dread. Everything appeared the same as always, but as they started to climb the staircase that was when she saw it, one tiny but crucial detail that was different - the golden star that served to make her save points was gone.

It shouldn’t have been that big of an issue - Frisk had long ago learned how to dodge attacks so well that she didn’t even need the save points anymore - but its absence sent a chill up her spine. She couldn’t even ask Toriel about it because no one except those with the power to reset could see them. Even Sans never seemed to notice them, despite everything he figured out about the resets using scientific means.

Frisk didn’t know for sure what it meant, or what other changes Chara had in store for her, but she had a feeling that she could no longer rely on the power to reset if something went horribly wrong - not this time.


	3. Chapter 3

The puzzles were still the same as Frisk remembered them. This time the familiarity was comforting rather than frustrating, but it wasn’t enough to shake the lingering feeling of dread. All it took was a glance at the subtle tension in Toriel’s face to remind her of what had just happened. Even though Toriel had used magic to heal the injuries completely, even fix the tear in the her regal purple robes, the attack had still left a mark behind that Frisk could see only too clearly in her eyes.

It was in the exceedingly long room that Frisk knew that the incident had rattled Toriel down to the core. Instead of testing her ability to take care of herself on her own by walking the length of such a large empty room, her mother kept a firm grip on her hand and walked her the entire way.

Frisk unthinkingly squeezed Toriel’s hand a little tighter, wanting so desperately to reassure her mother while knowing that they’d be parting sooner than either of them wanted. “Mom… it’s okay. You don’t have to hold my hand the whole way.”

Toriel paused beside the large stone pillar near the exit of the room and wore her best smile as she turned back to Frisk. “I know, my child, but it’s just that… I just realized I needed to go shopping in the city for a few things, and we need to hurry before the stores close for the day.”

“We?” Frisk asked, surprised.

\---

In all the untold times Frisk had been to the Ruins, not once had she ever visited the original city, Home, proper. She had seen Home from high above at the edge of a large stone balcony, and knew that it and New Home shared many visual similarities, at least from a distance, but she had never gotten a chance to see Home for herself. Another thing that always remained a mystery was how Toriel reached the city from such a high balcony without some way of climbing down.

The answer should have been obvious, Frisk thought as Toriel carried her through the air, flying over the city with a casual ease while surrounded by beautiful wisps of magic that reminded Frisk of her many confrontations with Asriel. She had always assumed that his abilities and appearance were the result of absorbing so many souls, but now she wondered just how much of it was just what would have come naturally, just greatly amplified.

It was a thrilling experience, and Frisk couldn’t help but laugh from the sheer joy of flight. Seated on Toriel’s shoulder with her mother holding firmly onto her legs, she was free to spread her arms wide and pretend that she was flying unaided over what what was still a massive majestic city in spite of its age.

Home had far less modern touches than New Home, and had many aspects of the Ruins in its architecture. While far from empty, there were only a handful of monsters Frisk could see meandering through the countless streets and tall buildings. Many stopped whatever they were doing to stare at Toriel as the queen swooped down then up again, eliciting a whoop of joy from Frisk, before finally landing delicately outside of a market with an animated neon picture of a smiling rabbit girl winking the third eye on her forehead.

Breathless from her laughter, Frisk continued to giggle as Toriel set her down onto the sidewalk and took a good look around. Though there were many signs of repair and some modern additions to the ancient structures, the city was a pale shadow of its former glory, and lacked the pristine glossy appearance of New Home. Despite the obvious age and wear, Home still was a sight to behold, and she couldn’t help but feel a thrill at discovering someplace new that she had never been to before in all the times she had traveled through the Underground.

The inside of the market was nothing striking, at least not when compared to the more modern designed shops above ground, but it had a wide array of food, including a special shelf behind the counter full of brands Frisk recognized as being human-made. This had some unfortunate implications that they were salvaged from the dump after being thrown out, which made her relieved that Toriel liked making food from scratch.

“My child,” Toriel said as she looked fondly down at the wide-eyed little girl whose hand she held. “How about we make tonight’s dinner special. You can pick anything you like, and I’ll bake a tasty pie for dessert. Do you prefer cinnamon or butterscotch?”

“Both!” Frisk replied with a bright grin. “Butterscotch-cinnamon pie is my favorite.”

Toriel’s eyes widened in surprise before she fairly beamed. “That’s my favorite pie as well… well, next to snail pie, but I think we can wait to have that another night.”

Frisk nodded quickly, feeling relieved. Although she had grown to appreciate the taste of snails, spiders, and even water dogs over time, she still had a preference for more ‘human’ cuisine, and nothing filled her with as much comfort and pleasant nostalgia as Toriel’s butterscotch-cinnamon pie.

With Frisk helping Toriel, it took almost no time at all before they brought a basket brimming with groceries to a cheerful rabbit lady who matched the sign outside behind the counter. As Toriel paid and a cat man with four arms and an eye patch packed their groceries into bags, Frisk paused to consider that why she felt the nagging sensation that something amiss with the entire situation. There was nothing unusual about the shop as far as she could see - it had shelves, products, and customers like any other store - but something about that made her feel as though she was forgetting a crucial detail.

The only notable thing Frisk remembered happening during Toriel’s shopping excursion was when a little white dog stole her mother’s cell phone. The fact that Toriel hadn’t given her a cell phone of her own yet was a problem, but one she could rectify later. There was no sign of any little annoying dogs either, just the occasional monster dog. The closest thing to an animal of the four-legged variety that she could see were a pair of black cats - one with rainbow stripes and the other with rainbow wings - napping in the store window. Though unusual, they weren’t anything like the little white dog that kept popping up at random moments to steal things or somehow get involved in absurd death traps.

Frisk shook the feeling off for now, making sure to smile when Toriel looked her way for a moment to keep her paranoid thoughts from her mother. She needed to keep focused on the present, and not get bogged down on little details that weren’t as important as rebuilding her relationship with her mother and saving all her friends.

“I hope you aren’t too bored by these errands, my child,” Toriel said as she collected the grocery bags. “I would’ve let you stay and play in the ruins while I went shopping, but it’s been so long since I’ve had company.”

Frisk shook her head as she tried to take one of the bags of groceries from Toriel, who kept both out of her short reach. “It’s okay, Mom. I want to help you. Let me carry that for you.”

Toriel marveled at the small human child beside her, and after a moment’s hesitation, reluctantly gave the lighter bag to Frisk, though she took a couple more items out and placed them into the bag she would carry. “You’re such a thoughtful child, Frisk. Thank you.”

Frisk felt a happy flutter in her chest as her mother used her name. The freedom to say whatever she wished while underground, to do something as simple as tell others her name, filled her with determination.

\----

The cold, crisp air in the winter biome of the underground did little to warm Sans’ bones as he stood among the snowy trees that surrounded the ruins. Thick woods fanned out in all directions, their branches bare as snow cast a white blanket across the subterranean world. The skeleton had his doubts that the trees ever had leaves on them in that past, or ever would in the future. Living in Snowdin for as long as he had, not once had Sans ever seen spring - or any other season - come to the sleepy town or the areas immediately surrounding it. Evergreens could survive in the climate just fine, but the skeleton imagined all the other trees were just empty husks that had long since given up hope.

It was actually a rather creepy thought, even to someone that was literally magic dust in the shape of reanimated bones.

The door to the ruins stood before Sans like a sentry just like him - cold and grim with the weight of its duty. This was the earliest point in time for the human to appear, if the data was at all accurate, which it usually was. While Papyrus was ecstatic for what it could mean, Sans could only think of the countless readouts and projections detailing potential futures of an empty underground coated in dust that led to the end of absolutely everything.

The human was at the very heart of the potential salvation and damnation that the future held in store for them; Sans and Papyrus were certain of that much at least. Something affected the human’s actions for great good, absolute evil, and everything in between. A minute from now was the absolute earliest that the human would arrive with whatever force drove them to do such wildly unpredictable acts. That meant that even the time of arrival was subject to flux, which meant anywhere from a minute to a month from now until they met their fate.

The only question on Sans’ mind was which potential timeline was their true future.

For a moment, Sans was tempted to knock on the door to see if the woman on the other side would answer, but his bony hand hesitated only an inch from away from the rigid surface. Finally, he tucked both hands firmly back into his pockets and walked off into the shadows of the trees.

_You better not kill her, human_ , Sans thought as the darkness surrounded him, hiding him completely from the path and the entrance to the ruins. He wanted to get a good look at the person who would either be their savior or executioner before they saw him.

A childish giggle interrupted Sans’ thoughts. It echoed through the air, seemingly coming from everywhere and yet nowhere. It drifted through the trees on the frosty breeze, with its own kind of chill that made his bones rattle.

Already on edge, Sans jerked, one eye socket darkening while the other flickered blue for a split-second as he looked around for the source of the sound. There were shadows everywhere, dancing and moving on their own unnaturally, leaving him disoriented with the terrible dread that he was completely surrounded. In spite of his unease, he tried to keep his easygoing persona. “Okay, kid, you pranked me good. You can come out already.”

The giggle echoed again, growing louder. Despite the rise in volume, it still sounded dispersed all around him. There was no motion, no crunch of snow, or a snap of a twig to signify movement - only a child’s laughter.

No matter where Sans looked, there was nothing to indicate where the laughter was coming from, or why the shadows were moving on their own with nothing to cast them but the still trees around him. He forced a convincingly casual shrug despite feeling his nerves on edge. “Look, kid, I know my jokes are hilarious, but you’ve got to wait until I make them before you start laughing. Come on out here, and I’ll tell you some really good knock-knock jokes I’ve been saving.”

The giggle sounded again, before words finally formed, sweet and slow. “Kn-o-ck. Kn-o-ck~!”

The voice, though sounding sweet and innocent, only made Sans more uneasy. He knew that he was being taunted, but he couldn’t do anything if he had no knowledge of who or what he was dealing with. “Okay, I’ll bite,” he finally muttered, more to himself than the shadows. “Who’s there?”

A loud explosion was Sans’ answer as the door to the ruins - the door he had guarded for so long, sealed with both powerful materials and magic - exploded with a spray of shrapnel. Wood and metal went flying in all directions, embedding into the surrounding rocks and trees, as the magic completely gave way, obliterating what had kept the denizens within trapped for ages - and those already out at bay.

Though caught off-guard, Sans managed to move quickly enough to avoid the shrapnel and dark flames that erupted from what was left of the door. Heavy breaths hissed through his teeth as fear beaded sweat on his forehead. “Shit!”

At that moment, a soft whisper of icy breath caressed the back of Sans’ skull, as if someone was standing directly behind him. “I’m a stupid doodoo butt.”

Sans whipped around, his left eye flickering with light for a moment as he lunged back from a blur of motion that nearly tore through his torso. Something sharp that glinted in the light peeking past the dead trees cut his shirt and hoodie, just barely missing his all too vulnerable body. He readied to dodge the next attack, summoning bones with his magic as a protective shield only to find that there was no one behind him, not even footprints.

When the giggle came again, it was from a single source, and Sans turned quickly, his eyes focusing on a far cluster of shadows. Framed by the skeletal branches of the bare, dead trees was a shadow shaped like a child. He focused on every detail he could, such as hints of neatly cropped brown hair, a sweater and pants, but the shadows left hid most of the figure before him. What was impossibly clear was a pair of blazing blood red eyes above a far too wide smile, curved sharp like a scythe, the two features so visible even in shade that they practically glowed in the darkness.

There was a flicker of blackness across Sans’ vision, as though he blinked even while his eyes remained wide open the entire time, and then his attacker was gone without a trace.

Despite the cold, Sans was drenched in sweat as he fled the wooded area for the path to leave empty space around him to help him dodge and retaliate against his attacker. His wild eyes darted about for any sign of movement, but the second he stepped onto the path, the shadows that danced in the woods disappeared, leaving the woods as dreary and ordinary as always. There was no hint of the figure that had taunted him or destroyed the door, the forest now utterly still.

Whatever this creature was -  human, demon, or something else - it was far more powerful than anything they could have predicted.

“ _Nyehehyaah_!?”

The terrified cry of his brother stabbed Sans’ heart like a knife. “ _Papyrus!_ ”


	4. Chapter 4

Toriel’s house in the ruins was just as cozy and inviting as Frisk remembered it. As she helped her mother put away the groceries and prepare to cook dinner, she felt a pang of regret that she was going to leave far sooner than she would’ve liked.

_I’ll sneak out while she’s asleep this time_ , Frisk thought as she smiled at Toriel while the queen tied an apron on her that was far too large for small frame. _I’ll leave Mom a note explaining things, and I guess I’ll see if I can get a cell phone from Alphys later..._

“Now then,” Toriel said as she straightened up, wearing a matching white apron with a red heart over the chest. “You need to be very careful while we’re cooking. Leave all the cutting to me, and you can mix this-”

The rest of Toriel’s instructions were swallowed by the not too distant sound of an explosion, and the two staggered from the sudden vibration that shook the floor beneath them. The queen instantly froze, her eyes wide with fear and confusion.

Frisk hesitated for only a second before bolting from the kitchen. When she realized the sound had come from someplace beneath them, she knew exactly where it came from and who had caused it.

“My child, wait!” Toriel shouted, alarmed, and a moment later was chasing after the little human into the basement. “No! Not there! It’s too dangerous!”

Frisk ignored her mother’s warnings, and her heart lodged itself into her throat as she reached the exit to the ruins. There was no door anymore, nothing for Toriel to threaten to destroy or lock behind her, just a large gaping hole singed at the edges, far too wide for even the queen to conceal any longer. Beyond the door, she thought she saw someone running, but they disappeared a second later before she could be sure of who it was.

As Frisk stood in the same place she always did every time Toriel blocked her path to the exit, the cold wind snaked its way in, biting at her skin where it was exposed. She barely noticed her mother had caught up to her until Toriel let out a cry of shock mingled with horror as the queen saw that the ruins were no longer sealed off from the rest of the underground.

Frisk closed her eyes. She had hoped to at least have at least one day with Toriel, but a few short hours would have to sustain her on the hard road ahead. “I’m sorry, Mom… but I need to leave now.”

Toriel snapped her gaze from the destruction to the child in front of her. She reached out to grab Frisk and pull the little girl back, but Frisk walked forward just a second too soon, leaving her grasping at only empty air. “Wait, my child! You cannot go out there! It’s far too dangerous!”

Frisk knew what was coming. She could hear it in Toriel’s tone. Door or no door, her mother would do anything to save her, even if that meant fighting her. She stopped dead in her tracks and turned sharply on her heel to embrace Toriel as her mother was about to grab her - or worse, attack - startling the queen.

“I love you, Mom,” Frisk said, her voice muffled against Toriel’s gown and thick with emotion as she clung tightly to her mother for one last hug.

Toriel was taken aback but returned the affectionate gesture, though the little girl’s behavior only served to increase her anxiety. “It… it’s okay, my child. We can just-”

“I’m sorry,” Frisk said, leaning back just enough to keep her words clear, “but I can’t stay. I know most monsters want me dead and want to steal my soul, and you want me to stay to protect me, but she’s calling me… This is a message that if I don’t go now, someone will die.” Emotion choked her throat and stung at her eyes. “Just like you almost did.”

“Wha… what are you talking about my child?” Toriel asked, her voice wavering with fear as she kept Frisk tightly against her. “Who’s calling you? And how-”

“Chara.”

Toriel froze at the familiar name and the memory of what happened when she was headed to Chara’s grave flashed in her mind, though she still refused to believe that it was anything more than a nightmare. “No… no that can’t…”

“I’m sorry,” Frisk murmured before she kissed her mother’s warm, fuzzy cheek. “Stay safe, and get all the monsters in the ruins to someplace safe. I’ll stop her.”

Toriel was rigid, her muscles numb as she tried to process the impossibility of everything that was happening. It was only when Frisk took advantage of her confusion to slip out of her grasp that she snapped back to the present to see the child who she had grown so fond of so quickly race through the gaping hole. “ _Frisk!_ ”

Toriel chased Frisk as fast as her legs could carry her, but was too slow to catch the child before she reached the doorway. At the threshold of the ruins, the queen of all monsters stopped dead in her tracks, the very tips of her toes barely touching the snow outside. A war waged inside her mind, full of chaos, confusion, and heartache as she watched the daughter she had gained for only a few short hours charge headlong into danger she didn’t fully understand.

 

Frisk reached the gated bridge without seeing any sign of Chara or Sans. She could see his guard station up ahead, empty and covered with snow. The oddly out of place yet conveniently shaped lamp was not present, much to her surprise, leaving  only snow completely devoid of any footprints but hers as she kept moving.

After rounding the bend near the large storage box and sign, Frisk spotted someone in the same place where Papyrus usually saw her for the first time. Unfortunately, instead of having a pleasant chat, the skeleton brothers seemed to be in a much more dire situation. Papyrus was on the ground, coated in a fine layer of powder that could either have been snow or dust. Frisk feared the latter due to the fear in Sans’ eyes as he bent over his taller brother and used magic to heal a nasty wound on Papyrus’ neck.

“Papyrus!” Frisk shouted, her friend’s name gushing out before she could think better of it. She wanted to be by Papyrus’ side, but Sans got between them first. She came to a complete stop just inches from his outstretched hand as she felt his magic take hold of her soul and lifted her body off the ground.

“Hold it right there, human,” Sans said, his glowing eye piercing through the human child he held captive above him. The hair and body type were a perfect match to the demon in shadow he saw earlier. Although this one had narrow brown eyes, he was the last person to discount the notion that someone could make their eyes glow different colors.  “You’re not getting another shot at my brother with me around.”

“Nyyeehhhh…,” Papyrus groaned before he groggily turned to stare at Sans and Frisk, his expression disoriented and dazed. “S-Sans, what is it...? I-is it a human…?”

Sans feigned a deceptively light tone even though his gaze was murder on Frisk. “Don’t worry about it, bro. Just taking care of business. You know, sentry duty and all that. Just finish healing yourself up for me, would ya?”

The last time Frisk had been levitated by Sans magic, it had been a field on the surface during a meteor shower, where he had joked about comparing her to the stars shooting across the moonlit sky. Back then feeling of his magic had been warm and pleasant, but the grip she felt on her soul now was every bit as cold and painful as when he killed her repeatedly for Chara’s genocidal rampage. “S-Sans…”

Somehow, Sans’ smile managed to grow even more dangerous, though his expression barely changed. “Funny. I don’t remember telling you my name, or my bro’s.” His magic brought Frisk closer until she was staring deep into his pitch black eye sockets. “I think you and me should have a little chat, human.”

Though Frisk felt her insides twist, she managed a smile. “You… you did tell me your name, Sans. You just don’t remember it. You also told me your super secret codeword: ‘I’m a stupid doodoo butt.’”

Sans twitched ever so slightly, dropping Frisk onto the snow none too gently, more to conserve his magic than anything else. “Funny… that’s the _second_ time I heard someone call themselves that today.” He tucked his hand back into his pocket, his gaze piercing through the child before him. “Seems like being a stupid doodoo butt is popular now. Personally, I don’t see the appeal, but maybe you can clue me in on a few things.”

Fear sent Frisk’s pulse racing. She had never seen Sans act this way towards her right after exiting the ruins, but she also had never seen him around when Papyrus had been attacked either. “You… you also told me your secret, secret triple-secret codeword: ‘I’m the legendary fartmaster.’”

“Wow,” Sans said. “That’s… uh… really childish.” For a moment, he seemed almost like his normal self as he gave a casual shrug. “I’ll give you points for knowing that secret, secret triple-secret codeword and what I called it, but right now, I’m not in the mood to be too trusting, you understand.” The white pinpricks in his eye sockets disappeared as his voice grew grave. “Not when a human who looked exactly like you just tried to kill my brother.”

Papyrus wobbly got to his feet, his hands placed a hand over the massive gash in his armor and the exposed ribs underneath. He furrowed his bony brow and glanced between his brother and Frisk, confusion evident on his face. “Sans? What’s happening?”

Sans took the chance to glance over at his brother. “Feelin’ any better now, bro? Wounds all fixed up?”

“The only thing I’m feeling right now is _confused_ , nyeh heh!” Papyrus retorted before he focused his attention on Frisk. “Do you _know_ this fartmaster person!?”

“Nope,” Sans said with a shrug. “Never seen ‘em before in my life. Until they tried to kill us and wrecked the ruins I mean.”

Frisk knew there was no sense in pretending that she didn’t know the skeleton brothers. There was no way to feign innocence or ignorance now, especially not after what Chara did. Her only hope to salvage things was by coming clean about everything, no matter how unbelievable it sounded. “I didn’t do that. My name is Frisk. I’m your friend… You just don’t remember it because time keeps resetting. The person who must’ve attacked you was Chara. She… She’s a dangerous human who wants to kill everyone.”

“Huh,” Sans said. “Hear that, bro? There’s _two_ humans down here.”

“W _hat_!?” Papyrus jerked as his eye sockets widened. “You’re both a fartmaster _and_ a human!? That’s _incredible_!” The taller skeleton paused before his jaw dropped. “ _Whaaaaaaaat_!? _Two_ humans!?”

Sans felt a little more at ease seeing Papyrus as cheerful as ever and that the wounds had healed, but his guard didn’t drop in the slightest. “You know what that means, don’t you?”

“ _Two_ humans to capture!” Papyrus said, gleefully. “ _Twice_ the prestige! _Twice_ the victory! _Twice_ the _popularity_! There’s _no way_ they won’t make me a Royal Knight _now_! Nyeeeh heh heh heh!”

“You got it, bro,” Sans said before his eye sockets darkened again. “That is of course… unless the human here is a dirty liar.”

“Eh? What!?” Papyrus gasped before he paused. “...About being a fartmaster, or being a human?”

Frisk closed her eyes to avoid the accusing stare and let out a weary sigh. “I know it sounds… crazy. I know I don’t have any proof besides knowing things that seem really suspicious… but…” She raised her head in spite of the futility of the situation. “I’m your friend. You, Papyrus… Undyne, Alphys, Mettaton, and so many other monsters down here… I’ve been down here in the underground so many times, trying to save you from Chara… to help all of us escape to the surface.”

Papyrus immediately perked up. “Oh! You mean like in that photo!?”

Frisk blinked, confused for a moment before she remembered the group photo in Sans’ hidden workshop. “You know about that, Papyrus?”

“So we’ve done all this before, huh?” Sans said before Papyrus could reply. “So how’s it supposed to go now?”

“I…” Frisk faltered. “I don’t know. Everything is changing so much from all the other times. Chara, she… she almost killed Mom… Queen Toriel. She tried to kill Papyrus, and I’m afraid she’s going to try and kill Undyne next. We have to warn her!”

“What!? Oh _no_!” Papyrus gasped as he clenched his fists. “This is… terrible! Awful! _Bad_ , even! We’ve got to let Undyne know _right away_!”

“Yeah, you get right on that, bro,” Sans said. “I’ll see what else the human has to tell us, like how the ruins got wrecked or why the human who did it and attacked you look just like them.” He paused for a moment, and Frisk could practically feel the temperature getting colder all around them. “I’m pretty curious about this Chara-ter, since the last human to call the queen ‘mom’ is supposed to be _dead._ ”

Frisk felt her stomach churn with the horrible possibilities - none of them good. “I’m not Chara. She pos…” The words died in her throat as she realized that admitting that Chara had possessed her used her body to do terrible things would only make things worse. “She has this… power. She can’t die because she can reset the world to a previous point in time. When she does that… no one remembers what happened and what she does.”

“So ‘Chara’ can do time and space shenanigans too!?” Papyrus gawked at Frisk before he frowned. “I _hate_ that!”

Gears turned in Sans’ head as he scrutinized the human. He was very good at reading expressions, and it was obvious from Frisk’s that she was hiding a lot of things in her explanation. “Funny that. See, if you know those codewords, then you know that we know a thing or two about timelines too. But I don’t think you know that we know that according to our charts, only _one_ human ever comes to the underground, and that human might kill some of us, or all of us.”

“But they also might become our best friend too, just like this human said!” Papyrus interjected, wiggling his pointer finger at his brother. “Best Friend from the _future_!”

Frisk couldn’t help but smile, as Papyrus’ words gave her hope even though Sans’ demeanor did not change in the slightest. “That’s right. When we get to the surface, we spend practically every day together…” She held her hands together over her heart. “Toriel and Asgore adopted me, and we all got a big house together. It’s crowded and loud a lot of the time, but it’s always fun and warm and it’s… it’s home. We’re family.”

“Well, that sounds really nice,” Sans said as he stepped forward. “Hey, Papyrus, why don’t you go ahead and go tell Undyne about the psycho human with a knife going around trying to kill her and all everyone else down here. I’ll bring this one to Asgore for you and they can help us break down the barrier like they want.”

“H-human,” Papyrus said, tears flowing down his bony cheeks. He quivered, clenching his fists, before he reached up to wipe at his eyes. “O-of course! Don’t you worry, human! I, the great Papyrus, will go and warn Undyne! And then, _and then_ …!”

“Yeah, you should get going before that human gets there, bro,” Sans said, his gaze never leaving Frisk. “Why don’t you take a shortcut?”

Papyrus jerked before he straightened up. “R-right, right away! You can count on _me_ , nyeeeh heh heh heh heh!” The tall skeleton promptly turned before he hurried off, rushing as fast as his bones could carry him. “ _Awaaaaay_!”

“Heh,” Sans chuckled dryly. “My bro’s so cool.”

Frisk watched Papyrus’ retreating back disappear from sight before she looked back at Sans. The stout skeleton was as difficult to read as always. He appeared to be acting like his normal cheerful self, but something about his earlier words left her feeling on edge. “Sans, I-”

“Shh,” Sans whispered as he held up his finger. “Let’s give my bro another second to get out of earshot.”

This was bad, Frisk felt certain of that, but she did as he told her anyway.

Sans closed his eyes and tucked his hands in his pockets, as they stood on the snowy path. For an agonizingly long moment, there was only the sound of the chill wind as it rustled the nearby trees and a bird sang from someplace far away.

“You know,” Sans finally said, shattering the silence, “what you said was really nice. When my bro and me found out that a human was coming here and they might kill all of us, well, you could say we were more than a little worried about it. But I’ve just got two questions for you. How many times have we made it to the surface?”

“I…” Frisk faltered. “I’m… not sure. It’s been so long since this began… maybe a dozen times at least?”

Sans eyes opened, showing only blackened pits. “And how many times did you have Papyrus’ dust on your hands?”

Frisk flinched.

A breathy laugh with no humor escaped Sans. “That’s what I thought. You don’t know how it feels to know that your timeline is completely messed up, starting and stopping and jumping around all over the place, not knowing who and how many are going to get killed in it. I can’t even see the appeal in getting to the surface knowing that we’ll just come back here and go through it all over again with no memory of it.”

Frisk grimaced. “Actually, I-”

“You can’t know how it feels,” Sans said, “to know that the number of timelines where everyone leaves and lives happily ever after is a hell of a lot smaller than the ones where your brother is killed off because he thought he could stop a human from killing everyone.”

“But I do!” Frisk shouted, desperation creeping into her voice. “I keep living through this over and over again, trying to save everyone, but-”

Sans held his hand out and Frisk was seized by magic, cutting off her words. “See, human, that’s the thing. Maybe you really do believe that, but the fact is my brother just almost died, and judging by the look on your face you had a minute ago, I think you know _exactly_ what it feels like to be the one dishing out the killing blow to my bro.” The pained expression on the human’s face said it all, confirming his suspicions. “Nothing personal, human, but I don’t believe in giving brother killers a second chance at their targets.”

“Sa-” Frisk could barely get out the first syllable before she was tossed hard to the ground. Though the snow cushioned much of the fall, she still felt the stones underneath slam into her ribs and arms. She barely had time to cry out before Sans’ magic threw her bodily into the trunk of a nearby evergreen, branches snapping against her back as needles scraped her skin.

“Unhand my child!”

Sans’ next toss was interrupted, leaving Frisk tumbling into a pile of snow as he barely managed to dodge a line of fireballs that blazed holes in the ground where he had just been standing.

Frisk could barely believe her eyes as she stared up at the person who had attacked Sans. “M… Mom…?”

Toriel strode forward, melting the snow all around her as flames danced around her body. Her face was a mask of pure fury, tinged with pain at the edges of her eyes. “Is this really how little your promise meant?”

The flickering light in Sans’ eye winked out as he released his hold on Frisk. He recognized the voice immediately. “Oh, hey… You’re her, aren’t you, the lady with that great sense of humor, right?” Slowly, he tucked his hands into his pockets. “Wow. Okay… this wasn’t how I was expecting our first meeting to be like at all.”

Toriel was as rigid as stone. “I had hoped that our first meeting would have been so much better than this as well, but after everything I’ve heard today…” Her gaze slid to Frisk. “To hurt _my child_ even after they told you they only want to help…”

Frisk felt her eyes prickle with tears. “M-Mom…”

Toriel’s gaze softened, but only until she turned back to Sans. “This child saved my life. Frisk did _not_ harm your brother. They were with me all day, and the moment that the door to the ruins was breached, they didn’t hesitate to charge headlong into danger to help you. I might not know what’s going on with… with Chara…” The name came out as painfully as a freshly reopened wound. “...But I do know that Frisk is _not_ the person who attacked either of us.”

For a long moment, Sans could only stare at Toriel. Eventually, he finally leaned back with a shrug. “Heh. How can I argue with that? Anyone who has such good taste in jokes has gotta be a good judge of character, especially when you’re so _fired up_ about it.”

The corner of Toriel’s mouth quirked into what was almost a smile, but she kept her back rigid. “I expect you to apologize to Frisk for your behavior and never try anything like this again.” With that she knelt beside Frisk and used her magic to heal the little girl. “Are you alright, my child?”

Frisk nodded as her wounds and even the damage to her clothes were healed in an instant. She wanted to hug her mother tight as emotion swelled within her heart, but instead she just sat up. “Mo…” The word died on her lips, as fear seized her with the notion that referring to Toriel as her mother was suddenly taboo. She had no idea how much the queen had heard, or if Toriel truly understood the full implications yet. “Is… is it still okay for me to call you Mom?”

The timid question left Toriel stunned, but only for a moment before she pulled Frisk into her arms. “Of course it is, my child. Frisk. I might not  know everything that’s going on like you do, but it sounds to me like you’ve suffered through more than any child ever should.”

Tears stung at Frisk’s eyes and she buried her face against Toriel’s chest as she held her mother fiercely. “Mom…!”

Though Sans kept his stance indifferent, almost cheerful, the scene before him did nothing to relax his guard. “Sorry about roughing you up a bit, human. Just looking out for my brother, you know?” He shrugged casually. “How about I treat us all to something at Grillby’s to make up for it?”

As tempting as the idea was, Frisk feared that spending time relaxing and bonding with her loved ones would only give Chara the time and opportunity to strike again before she could reach her friends. “Not yet. We need to let Alphys know about the danger too so she can alert all the monsters to evacuate to someplace safe. Everyone is in danger.”

Sans shrugged and side-stepped from the two. “Hey,  if you want to make sure a homicidal human won’t kill everybody and end all of existence as we know it, who am I to argue?”

Toriel rose to her feet, taking Frisk’s hand comfortably in hers. She looked at Sans as she passed the skeleton by, lowering her voice to a whisper. “We shall have a long chat about this later.”

Sans said nothing and merely watched as Frisk led Toriel in the direction of Snowdin. The shadows made his deceptively laidback expression seem far more severe than he wanted to let on, as he kept his eyes on the human who looked even more like the silhouette of the person that attacked him as the child passed under the shade of an evergreen.

Nothing was going like the projections suggested, but Sans knew one thing for certain - this child was dangerous.

“Wooow _ie_ , she really went off, didn’t she?” a new voice chirped cheerfully beside Sans just after Toriel and Frisk were out of earshot.

Though still tense, Sans slowly turned around to find a small golden flower monster bobbing as it sprouted out of the ground and snow behind him. Immediately he thought of the talking flower Papyrus often gushed about.

Flowey smiled up at Sans, wiggling his petals. “I guess she just can’t help acting like a mother - it’s only natural~! Even if it’s someone who nearly _gutted her like a fish_.”

Sans didn’t initially respond, staring down at the flower.

“She didn’t see it coming, but _IIIIII_ did,” Flowey said, drawing out his words. “I saw how the human lunged at her when she wasn’t paying attention and cut her right open. Dust was just gushing _ev-ery-where_.” He paused to tilt his head with wide, almost horrified eyes. “And then the human turned around and acted like a hero, bandaging her up and acting so _concerned_ about her… as if they weren’t the ones that did it in the first place! Kinda _psychotic_ , dontcha think?”

“Sounds messed up alright,” Sans said, his enigmatic smile in place as always. “Since you saw that much, maybe you have some ideas what the human is after.”

“Hard to say,” Flowey said with a shrug. “I mean, why would anyone swoop in to ‘rescue’ someone they just tried to kill? Either they get a kick out of the attention or they’re trying to endear themselves to everyone.” His eyes widened as he focused his gaze on Sans. “It was so _weird_ , too. She moved so fast… one second she was there, then suddenly she was somewhere else _entirely_. It was like she could _teleport_ or something!”

Sans’ fingers twitched inside his pockets. “You don’t say. Kinda hard to see how they were gonna endear themselves to me by showing themselves when they attacked me before they attacked my bro. Any thoughts on that?”

“Nooooo clue,” Flowey said, innocently. “Maybe they thought it’d be funny? Maybe they hate you and want to make everyone _else_ hate you? I mean, that lady _did_ ream you out just now. It’s not like you knowing actually did any good, did it?”

Sans said nothing.

“‘course, it’s none of _my_ business,” Flowey said, with a shrug of his vines that shifted the snow around him. “She probably wouldn’t believe me, even if I told her… and the human would probably just cut _me_ open for trying! There’s just _no_ helping _some_ people.”

“So the human went after you too, huh?” Sans asked.

“Nope, and I’d like it to stay that way!” Flowey said, cheerfully. “If she’s willin’ to gut old ladies who’re supposed to be her _mother_ , who _knows_ what she’d do to people who actually try and cross her?”

Though Sans’ expression didn’t change, the question struck a chord with him. “I guess so. By the way, I didn’t catch your name.”

“The name’s Flowey~! Flowey the flower~!” Flowey chirped, brightly. “Pleasure to meet you, I’m sure, and I gotta say… I’m glad she’s _your_ problem, not mine! With the ruins now open, I think I’ll make like a _tree_ and _leaf_ the rest to you!”

A quiet snicker escaped Sans before he winked at Flowey. “Vine by me. I can respect a plant who isn’t a sap and weeds out unnecessary risks so they won’t get whacked. Seed you a-ground, bud-dy.”

Flowey giggled before he gave Sans a wink, sticking his tongue out. “Just know I’m rooting for you and wishing you the best of luck, ‘cuz you’re gonna needle it!” The golden flower let out another laugh that tinkled like bells before he suddenly ducked down into the ground, disappearing from view and leaving Sans alone once more.

Sans scrutinized the ground where Flowey had been, finding the snow to be pristine, save for the occasional monster footprint. There had been no sign Flowey had even been there before, which indicated to him that the flower had some sort of magic that allowed him to bloom out of the ground then restore the area to its previous state.

It was just another detail about Flowey that rubbed Sans the wrong way.

However, whatever Flowey’s motivations for giving such information, many of the things he said made sense and were tidy explanations for some details that made Sans waver on Frisk’s supposed innocence. The flower was too sweet, his presence too convenient for Sans’ comfort, but that didn’t necessarily mean that Flowey was working alongside the homicidal human, especially not if he was willing to give away so much damning information.

For now, Sans knew there wasn’t much more he could do but keep an eye socket on everything, especially Papyrus.

With thoughts of his brother in mind, Sans disappeared in a blink to get to Snowdin long before the others on foot.

From a distance, nestled under the darkness of the forest, Flowey watched Sans disappear, leaving no trace behind. The smiling trashbag was suspicious, he could tell even despite the skeleton’s smile, but that hardly mattered; the flower had succeeded in planting the seeds of doubt in Sans.

With a quiet, twisted giggle, Flowey slowly turned his head to peer deeper into the darkened brush, meeting a pair of bright red eyes amidst the shadows. The gaze of his companion were piercing and clear, boring into Flowey with an intensity that almost frightened him, even though all other features of the human were completely obscured by darkness.

Once their eyes locked, Flowey’s mouth twisted into a smile full of jagged teeth far too large for such an innocent face as he let out another giggle even more unpleasant than the last. The red eyes remained focused on Flowey as moments passed before a similar, twisted smile appeared in the darkness as a sharp curve of white standing out unnaturally against the black.

Then, in an instant, both eyes and smile were gone.

Flowey continued to grin, his giggling intensifying until he burst out laughing. The flower couldn’t help but cackle before he dropped down into the ground, disappearing from view even as his laughter still lingered through the trees.


	5. Chapter 5

A weight had been lifted off Frisk’s heart when Toriel learned about the resets and still accepted her anyway. It had been a fear at the back of her mind plaguing her for as long as she could remember. Unfortunately, she still couldn’t feel relief, not when Chara was out running loose and Sans had been pushed to the point of going on the offensive against her. She could still feel the judgemental gaze of the skeleton crawling up her back, even without Sans physically present.

There was no doubt in Frisk’s mind that Chara was responsible, and that setting Sans after her was intentional. Whether it was to distract Frisk - or _Sans_ himself - was still up for debate, but there was no doubt that the fallen human had some motive for ensuring that the skeleton would be less than receptive to her.

Flowey had often warned her during her numerous visits to the vast void where he popped out of the nothingness to greet her after nearly every reset.

_“Say,” Flowey said, with his usual false cheer. “If I have **one** piece of advice for you…” In an instant, the flower’s face turned more demonic, twisted and frightening. “ **Don’t**. Let his brother. Find out **anything** about you.” His expression grew sheepish as he chuckled with embarrassment. “He’ll… well… Let’s just say.” In an instant, the embarrassment was gone and his  face warped into something sinister once more. “He’s caused me more than my fair share of resets.”_

It was a warning that Frisk had taken to heart, particularly after she experienced what Sans was capable of when he rose up to fight her - or rather, Chara - when the end of the world was nigh. It had only happened once, but it had been enough. The fight, and Sans’ determination, had been enough to make Frisk find her own and finally begin to take a stand against the fallen child.

However, Frisk never could figure out what quite caused it. While Chara had only made it that far _once_ , she still fought Frisk to wreak havoc on the underground during their countless loop of a journey through the underground. Chara had even gone so far as to kill Papyrus multiple times, _specifically_ because of what Sans had done during her one and only nearly successful attempt at complete genocide of the underground - and more than likely humanity as well.

No matter what happened, Sans never stepped forward to fight again, though he would always judge her in the end. Whatever Chara had done the first time, it had rattled Sans to his core and made him act. Since then, the fallen child had been unable to duplicate the experience. It didn’t matter how many times she killed Papyrus, it never did more than send Sans spiraling into a pit of depression and loathing. Apathy settled in, and Sans seemed to just wait in the shadows - for what, she didn’t know. But it never roused him far enough to fight Frisk - or Chara - ever again.

_"You can't understand how this feels,” Sans said, with sigh and a shrug. “Knowing that one day, without any warning... it's all going to be reset.”_

His apathy and resignation had been palpable, so potent that not even the thought of justice for his beloved brother was able to make him act. And yet it couldn’t be denied that he had, in fact, acted on at least one occasion - and on several occasions, if Flowey was to be believed. _Something_ had riled Sans from his self-professed laziness. It had been enough to motivate the skeleton, where even Papyrus’ death hadn’t been enough. It made Frisk more than a little curious what the difference had been.

Perhaps it was Flowey who had pushed Sans into such deep depression.

In spite of the prickling curiosity, Frisk never asked Sans or Flowey for details and had no intention of letting Chara push Sans to the brink ever again. She still vividly remembered that period of genocide, how the horrors piled on top of one another to awaken a little girl who gave up on living. The deaths piled up with words that brought more pain than even magical attacks that tore her body to pieces countless time. Even in that hopeless pit of despair and death, Sans had been utterly _terrifying_ to behold.

The feeling of San’s judgmental stare reminded her of how many times bones pierced her body and pure energy from the maw of animalistic skulls seared her flesh. His magic wasn’t the piercing blow of a spear or searing of flame, but acid that took its time to eat away at her and refused to let her nerves deaden to the pain.

_“On days like these, kids like you… should be burning in Hell.”_

Out of all the monsters’ attacks, the ones Sans inflicted was a true hell only matched by the one Chara created for Frisk.

Of course, Chara had barely reacted to the attacks. It was as if she was completely immune to pain, or at the very least had a high tolerance for it. It could even be said that her _determination_ kept her moving, even when her - Frisk’s - body begged for release from the torment. It wasn’t until the body _itself_ had completely given up that it was finally over.

Well, as ‘over’ as anything could be when dealing with someone who could simply reset time. And reset they did - over and over and over. At first, it was to keep trying. Chara _refused_ to accept defeat, _refused_ to stop no matter how badly Sans beat her - killed _them_.

But Sans noticed. He somehow knew how many times she had died, so it only stood to reason that he would have noticed how much harder it had been to eke out victory with each pass. It may have took hundreds of tries, but Chara was _learning_ his moves, his behaviors, his strengths, his weaknesses, _everything_. It didn’t matter how many times or how badly he broke Frisk’s body, let alone the pain she suffered - Chara’s determination would not let her lose.

And that determination eventually rewarded her for her efforts. Chara finally managed to kill Sans.

Again. And again. And again, again, again, and again.

Even though Chara had succeeded in finally achieving victory, it wasn’t enough. Just as Sans limped off to die, turning to dust as he spoke to his long dead brother, Chara would reset and they’d be back at the hall of judgement.

And she would kill him all over again.

Frisk didn’t know if Chara would ever have gotten tired of it, if she would have become satisfied. She was clearly punishing Sans for the fight he had put up, and took great pleasure in the fact that Sans seemed _somewhat_ aware of it. That fact alone suggested that Chara might _not_ have lost interest, at least not for a good long while.

_“That expression that you're wearing... well, I won't grace it with a description.” San said, with a shrug that was far too nonchalant for the conversation._

_The grin Chara made Frisk’s body wear was far too big for her face. Even Frisk’s eyes, having long since gone red, no longer seemed to be her own as they expressed the sheer sadistic glee that consumed every inch of Chara’s being._

_“That’s fine,” Chara said, her voice like honey. It was only during that time that she could actually speak freely, because Frisk wasn’t fighting back. “Instead, how about you tell me about **Papyrus**.”_

_The look on Sans face had been awful, absolutely terrible. It was as if Chara had already stabbed him, even though her knife hadn’t yet found its inevitable mark. And Chara loved every second of it. It was like killing Sans twice over._

It was too much for Frisk. Everything Chara had done, every atrocity the fallen child had used _her_ body to commit piled up until she couldn’t bear it any longer. It was during that fight, when Sans pleaded with her for the untold time to stop fighting and offered to spare her, she finally found her _own_ determination.

Chara never forgave Frisk for taking back control even for a moment, or for the ‘humiliating’ death that followed. When Frisk’s wish not to come back reset all of her progress, it was nothing less than the start of war between them.

But Frisk refused to yield ever again.

“She must be trying to see if she can get him going, so she can fight him again,” Frisk thought, her brow creased with worry. “And she’s using me as the guinea pig.”

“Frisk?”

Frisk snapped her head up at the sound of Toriel’s voice and saw her mother’s worried red eyes upon her.

“Do you need a moment to rest, my child?” Toriel asked. “It’s awfully cold here, and that sweater you’re wearing looks as though it has seen better days. Perhaps I could use some of my fire magic to warm you up.”

Frisk shook her head and squeezed Toriel’s hand that completely engulfed her own before leaning into her mother. “I’m okay.” She had gotten used to bearing the extreme temperatures of the underground a long time ago. She had gotten used to bearing a lot of things. “You’re warm…”

Toriel smiled gently and used her free hand to stroke Frisk’s unruly brown hair. “It’s alright to ask for help when you need it, my child. There’s no need to push yourself.”

Frisk couldn’t help but smile back at Toriel, if only to reassure her mother. “It’s fine, I-”

“Is that a human!?”

Three teenage monsters had stumbled upon the queen and child. Even with the gaming prompts missing, Frisk could tell from their instantly defensive positions that the trio were ready to fight. Snowdrake and Ice Cap postured themselves, trying to look intimidating, but the effect was spoiled by Jerry tagging along behind them, picking his nose. The two sighed heavily.

“Macaroni and _freeze_!” Snowdrake shouted, smirking at his clever catchphrase.

“... _Excuse_ me,” Toriel said, her tone light and yet hard as steel as she stared down at the monsters with an air of regalness that only served to remind Frisk of who she had been before - queen of monsters. “What, _precisely_ , do you think you are doing?”

“Being cool with my amazing new hat,” Ice Cap said with a sly grin, or at least as sly as a walking snowball with a carrot nose could manage “Don’t be jealous now, I know my hat is awesome.”

Jerry snorted as he sucked on his fingers. “No one cares about your dumb hat.”

A quiver of embarrassment ran through Snowdrake. “C-come on, you guys,” he whispered hurriedly to his friend and Jerry. “There’s a deadly human over there! We need to be _cool_!”

Frisk looked at the trio of teens and let out a soft sigh as she thought back to the best way to deal with all of them at once. She didn’t want to make a joke at Snowdrake’s expense, so she pointedly turned away from Ice Cap when he struck a flaunting pose.

“Hey!” Ice Cap noticed Frisk’s disinterest the same as if she had just called him a four-lettered word. “ _Hello_? My hat’s up here.”

Toriel tightened her grip on Frisk’s hand, prompting the human child to look up at her and see her face was still hard and unyielding. “I believe I asked you children a question.”

“That’s a human!” Snowdrake shouted as he pointed a wing at Frisk. “An evil monster slaying human! And we’re going to _freeze_ it in its tracks!”

“ _No_ ,” Toriel said, with great authority that made Snowdrake and Ice Cap cringe. “You will _not_.”

Ice Cap lost his composure. “H-hey, don’t wreck the mood we’ve got going here, lady. Can’t you see this awesome style we’ve got going?”

Toriel’s eyes narrowed as she silently stared down at Ice Cap. Even though she spoke no words, her eyes spoke volumes - the motherly judgment that bore down into his very soul.

Jerry let out an overly drawn out snort that ended in a moan as he tapped his phone with sticky fingers. “You guuyyysss, just kill the human and take its soul already. I _need_ that money to buy more diamonds so I can crush this guy’s town while he’s AFK. Remember? Ugh! It’s like no one cares about what’s really important here.”

“Since when did we promise to share the reward money with you?” Ice Cap asked, agitated.

Snowdrake flapped his wings. “The reward money doesn’t matter right now!” He paused for a moment. “Okay, well, yeah, it’ll help me with my comedy act and maybe get me on MTT’s show, but the important thing right now is stopping the human while looking _cool_!”

“Ugh, that joke sucks,” Jerry snorted. “You’re so predictable.”

At seeing the teens caught in their own internal argument, Frisk lightly tugged on Toriel’s hand and silently gestured down the road beyond them. The queen, though annoyed at the teen trio, was more than willing to leave them behind.

Unfortunately for Frisk, Jerry hadn’t been as inattentive as she had thought, and with a yowl, she suddenly found the incredibly unpleasant monster clinging to her with sticky fingers.

“Come on, human,” Jerry said as he tried pulling Frisk away from Toriel. “Just die already.”

A flicker of heat was all the warning Jerry got before flames lunged forward to strike his arms. While Frisk didn’t feel the heat in the slightest, the fire burned Jerry’s arms mercilessly and forced him to release the human with a scream.

Toriel’s expression was nothing less than barely restrained rage, her left hand extended outward and engulfed in flames that promised a repeat performance - and then some. Her right hand was still firmly clamped around Frisk’s own, firm and unyielding. “You will _not_ touch my child again.”

Jerry rolled around in the snow, making awful noises that were more annoying than pathetic. “Like, what was that for, old lady?”

“You know precisely what you did, _young man_ ,” Toriel said, her voice cold. “Do it again, and you will be _punished_.”

Snowdrake and Ice Cap, being far more susceptible to flames than Jerry due to their icy natures, backed away very quickly.

“If you wanted to kill the human first, you could’ve said so,” Jerry said. “But I’m not sharing my part of the reward with you.”

Toriel’s cheek twitched, her eyes narrowing into slits. She raised her left hand, causing the fire to surge violently about her, before she brought her hand down roughly. “ _Begone_!”

The flame lunged at Jerry, and before the disgusting waste of flesh could react, he was blasted backwards with a fireball and sent spiralling through the air like a smoking meteor. His whining squeal marked his trail through the sky before it petered out, just in time for him to land back down in the woods a sizeable distance away.

Snowdrake and Ice Cap stared after their self-described ‘friend’ with wide eyes. Even as far away as he landed, they could still hear his whiny voice faintly complaining on the breeze about tree limbs lodged in various burned orifices.

“I-I think I hear my mom calling me,” Snowdrake muttered before he turned and ran like his tail was on fire, with Ice Cap right at his heels.

Toriel stared hard after the fleeing teenagers before she let out a snort. She flicked the fire off her left hand, as if shaking away water, before she reached into her robe and pulled out a handkerchief. She turned to Frisk, her stone expression melting to the more motherly one that Frisk knew so well. “Here, my child. Use this to… wipe _that_ off.”

“Thanks, Mom,” Frisk said as she accepted the handkerchief and began scrubbing vigorously. She felt so much better with Toriel by her side, even when she was covered in Jerry slime.

“Let us continue, shall we?” Toriel asked, gently. “Snowdin isn’t much further from here. Do not worry, I will keep you safe.”

Frisk smiled brightly at Toriel and nodded even though she was more concerned about her mother’s well being than her own.

 

\---

 

Snowdin was the same as always - cheerful snowy atmosphere smothered in a thinly veiled blanket of despair. There was nothing for Sans to worry about just yet. Hopefully it would stay that way while he spent some time in the hidden workshop of his house that Papyrus rarely visited, and Sans practically lived in more than his own bedroom.

The machine he normally kept under a thick gray tarp whined and shook with a terrible clatter as Sans forced it into operation. The thing should have been scrapped for good some time ago and looked like a broken piece of junk, but he needed it too badly to let it die.

Data streamed across the cracked screen, written in a language that only Sans and his brother understood, though neither knew why. Still, it suited the purposes of keeping things discreet. Even Papyrus had long since lost interest in its secrets, leaving Sans as the only one to use it with any regularity.

The data seemed… different to Sans somehow, but he couldn’t place his finger on why. Unlocking drawers to read his notes, past details matched up with what he expected. Perhaps it was his paranoia searching for something wrong. It wouldn’t be the first time, and it was one of the reasons why Papyrus kept trying to get him to stop using the machine every time he got caught in the workshop.

Leaning back his squeaking old chair, Sans sighed through his teeth. Between the data readouts and the notes written in his own hand, there were no discrepancies. Everything was still the same as it ever was - the timeline was broken and some anomaly was resetting it over and over again at varying times. The bits of data that represented the lives of monsters either remained or disappeared at key points.

There was still only one human. Sans expected it, but part of him was hoping that Frisk had been telling the truth that there were two humans in the underground. But in the end, it gave him a small sense of relief that he _hadn’t_ beat up an innocent child - just a dirty murdering liar.

“You sure can pick ‘em, lady,” Sans sighed.

Propping his arms behind his head, Sans considered the endless stream of data that he had burned into his brain, his eyes growing heavy from immense weariness. Everything was as it ever was, with a glitchy time-space continuum that reset whenever the anomaly pleased. It was almost a relief if it wasn’t so terrifying.

“Guess another reset is in our future,” Sans muttered. “Or two… thousand.”

Disturbingly, the sight had long since become ‘normal’ in its abnormalness. While its initial discovery been a shock, Sans had grown numb a long time ago. As inevitable as snow in Snowdin, the future was never going to proceed beyond a certain point and would loop back around to the very start. There was no future, only the endless present.

“Heh,” Sans chuckled, with a humorless smile as he closed his eyes. “I don’t even know what I’d do if I ever _didn’t_ see a reset coming at us.” His smile widened only a fraction. “Who knows, maybe I’d get these _lazy bones_ moving and actually _do_ something.” He let out a derisive snort, amused at his own joke. “Hah! I’ll _crossbones_ that bridge when I _never_ come to it.”

The memory of Papyrus with his neck slashed and spilling dust made Sans snap his eyes open again, though they were now empty pits of black. The sight was burned into his brain and made him sick to his stomach. Even worse, it felt _familiar_ \- like he had seen it hundreds of times before. But in those cases, Papyrus _hadn’t_ been healed. Instead, his brother crumbled to dust, leaving nothing but his scarf behind.

Sans wasn’t sure if it was his fear of what could have been, a premonition of what was to come, or a memory of what had already happened in a previous timeline. In the end, it didn’t matter; it was enough to chill him to his very core.

Papyrus was the only thing keeping Sans sane. If he ever lost his brother… he didn’t know if he could go on.

Of course, the data informed Sans that was a real possibility, a _strong_ possibility. In so many iterations of the timeline, Papyrus died at the human’s hands… and he never stopped it.

Sans’ bony hands quivered in his lap. In those other time loops, was he just careless and not there when Papyrus needed him the most, or did he just give up? That human put him on the offensive with a direct attack, kicking in his instinct to live, and Papyrus’ scream made him feel a fear far worse than possibly losing his life.

Sans couldn’t have just let it happen, not even once, let alone so many times. He wouldn’t. The human must have always waited until he and Papyrus were separated. He just proved it.

Hadn’t he?

A laugh that was almost a sob escaped Sans as he covered his eyes and felt moisture at the edges of his eye sockets. “God… this is Hell.”

It was pointless to save Papyrus, and Sans knew it. It was pointless to save anyone. Everyone would just die and come back to life forever and ever. At least he wouldn’t remember all those times his brother died. He wouldn’t remember all the times he had failed Papyrus.

And if he didn’t remember it, that was the same as it having never happened. Right?

For all his nihilism, Sans couldn’t just stand still when he heard Papyrus scream. That should have been enough to comfort him, but it wasn’t. The readings from the machine taunted him with countless timelines where Papyrus surely had screamed as well, but nobody came to save him.

Sans wiped the tears away from his perpetually smiling face and struggled to get his breathing under control. He had to focus and look over the data one more time. Maybe there was something he missed, some variable he hadn’t accounted for. He didn’t recall anything indicating the lady behind the door would leave the ruins until a timeline that promised a happy ending. Maybe Toriel’s presence was a sign of hope.

But he doubted it.

 

\---

 

A familiar warning sign and sentry station reminded Frisk of their upcoming encounter. She paused to get Toriel’s attention and pointed up ahead. “That’s where one of the royal guards is stationed. He can’t see movement, but he likes being petted, so we can get past him without a fight if we don’t move when he uses his attacks.”

Toriel’s ear flicked as she glanced down curiously at Frisk, then made a thoughtful noise. “That sounds like Doggo… but how do _you_ know him?”

Frisk tried to smile, but her eyes couldn’t muster enough happiness to be convincing. “I try to make friends with every monster every time I go through the underground. I remember all their names, and how to convince them to stop wanting to take my soul so I won’t have to fight them.”

Toriel made another thoughtful noise. “Oh, yes. You mentioned that, didn’t you. About those… resets?” Tilting her head, the queen seemed to consider something before she suddenly strode straight towards the sentry station, taking Frisk firmly with her - much to the human child’s surprise. “Doggo! Doggo, are you there?”

Doggo rose from within the sentry station, narrowed eyes darting about as a smouldering doggy treat hung from his mouth. “Who’s calling me? I sense movement…”

“Ah, good, it _is_ you,” Toriel said, with an approving nod. “It’s Toriel, Doggo. It’s been quite some time since I’ve last seen you. Have you been well?”

Doggo went rigid and tossed away his smoking doggy treat before he gave a crisp salute to the large moving figure. “Queen Toriel! You’ve left the ruins? I-I never thought that’d happen in my lifetime.”

“Neither did I, but things have changed,” Toriel said, with wry bemusement. She paused before she glanced over the sentry booth, then furrowed her brow. “What _are_ you doing here, Doggo?”

“I’m on the lookout for dangerous humans, Your Majesty,” Doggo said, his hand still firmly locked in salute. “If one moves past here, I’m to kill them without hesitation and take their soul to King Asgore right away.”

Toriel’s eyebrow shot up before her expression became disapproving.  She immediately thought back to what Frisk had said, and the thought that Doggo had in the past - or future, different timeline, or whatever - had caused Frisk harm made her anger return. “No, absolutely not! That is unacceptable.”

Doggo blinked, a small quiver running through his body as he could _feel_ the queen’s disapproval. “B-but it’s a direct order from King Asgore himself. We’re just one soul away from breaking the barrier.”

“Well, I am giving you a new order,” Toriel said, once again with great authority. “You will stop this nonsense immediately and escort us to Snowdin.”

Doggo hesitated, perspiring as his ears drooped. “B-but, the Your Majesty, what about the barrier?”

“ _Doggo_ ,” Toriel said, her voice becoming sharp. “I do not recall your _ears_ having any particular problems.”

Doggo jerked his back rigid and reaffirmed his salute. “Of course not, Your Majesty! Please forgive my impertinence.”

Frisk felt her heart go out to Doggo and all the monsters when it came to being trapped underground. Though she was limited by Toriel’s hand holding hers, she still managed to climb onto the sentry station to pet Doggo on the head. “Don’t worry, we can break the barrier without anymore killing.”

Doggo jerked, his eyes popping open wide. “I’ve been pet! By a human?!”

Toriel blinked and watched Frisk as she continued to pat Doggo on the head, much to the sentry’s bewilderment. “Yes, you have. And her name is Frisk, so do not be rude.”

“This… this is very unexpected,” Doggo said as he stared at the barely moving shape that must have been the human.

Frisk smiled, though she knew Doggo couldn’t tell. “It’s nice to meet you, Doggo. Thank you for not fighting with me.”

Doggo’s confusion only grew, and his conflicting feelings for being petted by the human he had been ordered to kill only left him even more dumbfounded. “The… the pleasure is all mine, human, er, Frisk?”

Toriel smiled in approval. “Good, good. Now, could you please escort us to Snowdin? It’s getting quite late, and I would like to get Frisk out of this cold.”

Doggo tried to salute again, but his paw bumped into Frisk’s hand. Unsure of how to react, he just straightened up until even his tail was pointed like an iron rod. “As you command, Your Majesty!”

With Doggo acting as escort, no other citizens made any move to start a battle with Frisk. Their guard count only grew after they encountered Lesser Dog, who may not have spoke a word, but was only too happy to accompany them on Toriel’s request after she recovered from the surprise of seeing how far Lesser Dog’s neck could stretch from being petted by a small human child.

Dogamy and Dogaressa’s arrival was far more intimidating as they sniffed the air and stalked close with their dark executioner robes and giant axes. However, once they caught the scent of their queen, their grim hunting turned into excited running.

“Queen Toriel! You’ve returned!” Dogamy shouted.

“We thought there was an unusual smell,” Dogaressa said. “But we never expected it to be _you_.”

Doggo turned to his comrades and briefly saluted. “Queen Toriel has called off our orders to hunt down the human intruder and harvest their soul. You two are dismissed for the rest of the day.”

“What, really?” Dogamy asked, eyes wide.

“Yes, really,” Toriel said, with a satisfied nod.

Dogaressa bent down to sniff at Frisk. “Are you sure, Your Majesty? This one smells a little… off.”

Toriel paused at that before she smiled, though there was a razor edge to it. “My. It seems that the royal guards have become rather… _argumentative_ while I’ve been gone.”

In an instant, all the gathered guard dogs went rigid with a whimper as their ears folded back.

“I-I’m sorry, Queen Toriel,” Dogaressa said quickly. “We just memorized past smells of other humans from the clothes they left behind, and whenever humans came through, they were always very dangerous and attacked monsters without mercy.”

“It’s quite alright, I’m sure that idiot is to blame,” Toriel said, smiling despite her harsh words. “He gave you such _foolish_ orders in the first place, after all.”

Daringly, Frisk reached out on tiptoes to pet Dogamy and Dogaressa each in turn. “It’s okay. Dad… _Asgore_ won’t be angry with you.”

Toriel paused and turned to glance at Frisk out of the corners of her eyes. Her expression became unreadable as she stared at the human child. After several moments, she returned her attention back to the dog guards and made a small thoughtful sound in the back of her throat.

“W-well, they do seem friendlier than a human is supposed to be,” Dogamy said reluctantly, cheeks tinted from the petting.

“Tell me about it,” Doggo muttered under his breath. “Their petting is a shock to everyone.”

“I liked it,” Dogaressa said before pausing for a moment. “Even if you smell weird, that was nice.”

Lesser Dog barked happily, tail wagging.

Toriel’s guarded expression melted away, and was instead replaced with a smile. “Humanity is no different than us. They are just as much capable of kindness and goodness as we are.”

“I… suppose,” Dogamy said hesitantly. “If you’re vouching for them, Queen Toriel, then they must not be a threat after all.”

“We haven’t heard anything yet about any monsters falling down today,” Dogaressa admitted. “That’s different than we expected if a human reached this far from the ruins.”

Frisk let out a sigh of relief, though she couldn’t relax her guard yet. Chara lived for the moments when she let her guard down. “There’s still someone dangerous out there. You need to warn everyone once we get to Snowdin to hide someplace safe for a while. Anyone out hunting humans is in danger!”

As the dogs grew alarmed by the news, Toriel went quiet and considered Frisk’s words, thinking back to the altercation with the two skeleton brothers. While she was still upset about the way Sans had assaulted Frisk, she also couldn’t deny that someone had indeed attacked his brother. If someone was actively attempting to frame Frisk to instigate her murder, the queen would just have to be that much more vigilant.

Of course, that didn’t address any of Toriel’s _other_ concerns. Frisk had spoken as if she had gone through the events before them many times, both fighting the dog squad and being attacked by the monsters that populated the underground. It meant that there had been countless times where the small child had been in _danger_ , and only managed to survive due to her ability to pacify her attackers.

Frisk didn’t even carry a weapon to defend herself.

It made Torielfeel that much more disgusted - with Asgore, but mostly _herself_. She knew the underground was dangerous for a human, let alone a child. It had been the main reason she had tried to keep Frisk and all the other children from leaving.

But, when they proved too determined to leave, Toriel gave up and turned her back on them. One by one they left, and if Doggo’s comments about the human souls meant anything, one by one they died. All while this was going on, Toriel had been _hiding_ ; hiding behind the door, she had shut her eyes and ears to what was happening - to Frisk and to the other children.

Everything before Toriel only served as a reminder, physical proof that her fears had been well-founded. The danger had been, and always was, quite real. And she had turned her back on the children, allowing them to face the danger alone. She had allowed Frisk to face the danger alone.

Was Toriel really any different from Asgore? Asgore may have ordered the children murdered, but Toriel had been the one to allow it.

At that thought, Toriel bristled and gave a mental shake to dispel it. Straightening up, she glanced down at Frisk as she reached her hand out to offer it once again to the human child.

“If that’s the case, then we shouldn’t dally much longer, my child,” Toriel said. “We should head to Snowdin quickly.”


	6. Chapter 6

Frisk couldn’t help but marvel at how different the trip to Snowdin felt when she wasn’t constantly battling for her life. While her countless resets had boiled each fight down to a science, it was still a stressful affair where one wrong move could result in her death. However, with Toriel by her side, no one dared attack the human child again.

But it wasn’t just Toriel - Frisk had the entire canine sentry squad as her escort. After picking up Greater Dog with very little fuss and a large amount of pettings, the human child was soon completely surrounded by bodyguards - with the strongest of them all standing directly beside her, holding her hand.

Jerry never tried to make a second attempt, nor did any of the denizens of Snowdin that traveled the woods. Gawks and stares accompanied Frisk, safe in her protective bubble, as she was guided through the snowy landscape towards the town proper.

As Toriel carefully escorted Frisk over the bridge, the human child glanced upwards instinctively for signs of Papyrus’ ultimate puzzle - the one he never used on her, regardless of who was the dominant force in her body during that particular run through the underground.

_It’s kind of sad_ , Frisk thought. _I didn’t really get to play with Papyrus at all. We would’ve been doing his puzzles by now._ Even though she already knew how to solve the puzzles, spending time with Papyrus and Sans was always fun.

A glint caught Frisk’s eye at the end of the bridge, reminding her of a crucial detail that had slipped her mind in all the excitement. She ran ahead of the others, heedless of Toriel’s startled cry, to kneel down in front of the hidden camera embedded into the side of the faux wooden bridge. “Alphys, if you’re watching right now, please tell all the monsters to evacuate to someplace safe. There’s someone dangerous underground who wants to kill everyone!”

There was no response, not that Frisk expected any. Hopefully Alphys was monitoring them at that moment and not getting distracted by Mettaton, or anime, or shitposting online, or…

Frisk sighed and shook her head as she returned to her feet. At least they could get Snowdin evacuated once they got there.

“Please don’t run off on your own like that, my child,” Toriel said a little breathlessly once she caught up to Frisk. After what happened the last time the little human ran off alone, she was relieved to see no threat. “What were you doing there?”

Frisk pointed at the small circle of glass framed by metal that rested in the shadow between two rocks painted to look like wooden boards. “That’s one of Alphys’ hidden cameras. She’s the head scientist for Dad, and she’s always been the one who evacuates monsters all over the underground in case of emergency.”

A small chill ran up Frisk’s spine as she finished speaking. She knew that simple fact that Alphys prevented Chara from killing every single monster personally had been a point of irritation for the fallen child. That made Alphys a major target as well, not just for being one of Frisk’s closest friends.

“We…” Frisk felt her mouth go dry. “We should hurry to Snowdin.” They had to get ahead of Chara before someone else was attacked.

Toriel made a quizzical sound as she looked into the camera, then furrowed her brow. “What an… _odd_ place for a camera. Are there many of these?” After speaking, she paused as realization dawned upon her. “...Ah. I suppose she uses these to help ‘hunt for humans’.” Her eyes narrowed as she glanced at the dog sentries out of the corners of her eyes. “Am I correct?”

The blank look worn by Doggo and the rest of the canines did little to soothe Toriel’s irritation. The dogs looked at each other and then at their surroundings, failing to spot any cameras on a painted canyon. The boss monster let out a heavy sigh before she straightened up. “I see.”

“There’s cameras all the way from the ruins to the castle,” Frisk said as she took Toriel’s hand and gently urged her mother and the others to keep moving.

“And I suppose that _idiot_ allowed her to do it,” Toriel said, stiffly.

Frisk bit back the urge to sigh. It was always sad to see the progress Toriel and Asgore made to reconcile on the surface erased once they returned to the underground. “D… Asgore took her on as royal scientist when she told him she created an artificial soul.” She paused for a moment, considering her words. “He told me, a long time after the barrier broke, before the timeline reset again to this, that he was hoping she could create artificial human souls so he wouldn’t have to kill anymore humans to break the barrier.”

Toriel went quiet for several moments, her expression once again becoming unreadable. But then, just as quickly as before, the look of steel returned. “And yet, for all his wishes, six children were still killed… and he still attempted to kill _you_.”

Frisk didn’t have a response for that. Her first thought was to recall how Asgore had succeeded in killing her more times than she could count, but there was no way in hell she would _ever_ let Toriel know.

Just like she would never tell how many times Toriel unintentionally burned her to death.

The rest of the trip to Snowdin was made in awkward silence. With Toriel unwilling to relent and Frisk unable to argue, the subject was instead left to linger over the group to the point that even the clueless canines noticed it and could only look at each other in discomfort.

Frisk was more than a little relieved to see Snowdin in the distance, its quaint little buildings and happy decorations a welcome distraction. Of course, that relief was short-lived when she noticed right away that the citizens of the town were still very much present; they hadn’t been evacuated, and appeared to be going about their daily routines without a care in the world.

That fact alone made Frisk very uncomfortable and concerned above all else. It meant that Alphys hadn’t responded to her message, though it didn’t give any indication as to _why_. There were several options - she hadn’t been paying attention, she didn’t trust Frisk’s warning, or she was _unable_ to do anything. While the first two could easily be rectified, the human child couldn’t entirely put her faith in the hope that either was the case.

Chara wouldn’t allow it.

_At the very least,_ Frisk thought, _Alphys can’t be dead… yet. Chara wouldn’t just kill her and be done with it. Not after everything. She wouldn’t go through all this trouble of letting me have control back unless she still planned on making me watch her kill everyone I love._

It was hard to imagine that Chara could have made such quick progress all the way to Hotland, especially when she had _just_ attacked Papyrus outside the ruins. There was no one else who could have done it - the only possible culprit was Chara.

Of course, there was no way to know how long Frisk had been unconscious, and how long Chara had to prepare. The fact that Chara had somehow separated herself from Frisk in and of itself was unimaginable and downright terrifying. There was no telling what the other human could do at this point.

“It doesn’t appear that this Alphys heeded your warning,” Toriel said, drawing Frisk’s attention back to her. “No one has been evacuated.”

Frisk stared up at Toriel, inexplicably off balance. The fact that she had the ability to tell others about what was going on in this part of the timeline was surreal as it was, but for people to actually _believe_ her… it filled her with all sorts of intense emotions.

“Perhaps she simply didn’t know whether or not she could trust you,” Toriel said as she glanced to Frisk. “After all, she would not recognize you at this time, would she? She must have been quite surprised to hear you address her by name.”

Frisk sighed as she rubbed her head, willing to disorientation to disappear; she couldn’t let herself be thrown by such drastic differences to the timeline. “I was hoping that by using her name she’d take me seriously, or at least let D… Asgore know. I think he knows about the resets like Sans does, so he might’ve told everyone to evacuate. Or maybe they would’ve panicked at a human knowing too much?” She trailed off on an awkward note, knowing she was grasping at straws.

Frisk’s eyes drifted away from her mother to the snow crunching beneath her feet as her steps slowed. “Honestly… I’m not used to being able to tell all of you anything about what’s going on. I’m not sure how much I should say without… making you all afraid of me.” The memory of the look Sans gave _her_ sent a chill through her body that had nothing to do with the cold. “Or hate me.”

Toriel made a thoughtful sound in the back of her throat as she looked down at Frisk. “Well, it would seem that everyone’s already worked themselves in a tizzy over you as it is, so you really can’t blame yourself over that, my child. Even if I find it very strange and confusing, I also can not deny… that I feel as though known you for years. I see no reason not to trust you, and even less reason to fear you.”

Tears pricked behind Frisk’s eyes as Toriel’s words grasped tightly at her heart. Moved by the sudden surge of emotion, she threw her arms around her mother’s side and buried her face in the queen’s dress. Words failed her, so she merely embraced her mother’s side.

“Nice to see a human showing some love instead of LOVE,” Sans said, his abrupt appearance startling both Toriel and Frisk out of the hug. “Heh, don’t let me interrupt. I’d rather watch a human hug a monster than stab ‘em. Right, old lady?”

Toriel fixed Sans with a pointed stare. “Indeed. Perhaps monsters could learn from Frisk, present company included.”

Sans chuckled as he gave a casual shrug. “Hey, who am I to complain about being in good company? How about we all catch a bite at Grillby’s while we wait for my bro to get back? I don’t think we need any sentries keeping watch when the human is right here with us.”

Doggo looked over at Toriel, trying to hide how eager he was for a break from all the strangeness. “The food here is good, Your Majesty. The royal guard can attest to that.” The other dogs in his squad made barks or nods of approval.

Toriel’s initial response was to agree but instead she paused. While it was true that Frisk was not a threat, the human child had insisted that there was another that _was_. And the fact that this other human had attacked the skeleton brothers was the entire reason the one before her showed so much hostility towards Frisk in the first place. It was a threat that she could not ignore, even if she had no physical evidence to support it. The old queen considered her options before she turned to Frisk. “...Perhaps we should order the evacuation instead, and not wait for this ‘Alphys’.”

Sans glanced at Frisk. “You talked to Alphys, huh?”

Frisk could see right through Sans’ casual question. “Though the cameras, but if she was watching at the time, I don’t think she listened when I asked her to evacuate the monsters.”

“Eh, don’t worry about it,” Sans said with a shrug. “I doubt someone like the royal scientist would be interested in taking orders from a random human anyway. Maybe all she needs is to get the order directly from royalty, like, say, the queen.”

Toriel was silent for several moments, before she gave a nod. “Perhaps that is precisely what I should do.”

“Great,” Sans said, his grin widening. “How about I show you the way to the lab while the dog squad here get some treats with the human. They could teach them how to play poker while you go save the underground from the human who wants everyone dead.”

Toriel’s mouth stretched into a thin line. “Thank you for your suggestion, but I believe I will keep the human child with me-”

A terrible scream cut off the queen, though it was a fair distance away. The familiarity of it hit Sans with a terrible sense of déjà vu that had him turn a glowing eye towards the child directly in front of him then in the opposite direction where Papyrus’ scream came from. He disappeared just as the others started moving.

Frisk didn’t hesitate to run, despite what happened the last time Papyrus screamed. Dread overflowed her rapidly beating heart as she reached the border of Snowdin and Waterfall. She expected the worst, a repeat of earlier, but it wasn’t Papyrus on the ground bleeding dust.

It was Undyne.

The heavy armor Undyne wore looked as though it had been thrown into a thresher while she was still wearing it, gashes mangled inward and twisting her limbs until she lay helpless on the ground, hissing through her sharp teeth. Her helmet was gone, crushed by her side and exposing her face covered in cuts, but her gaze wasn’t on her ruined armor or her own wounds. Her attacker stood only a few steps away, facing not her, but Papyrus.

“Chara!” Frisk shouted as she charged at the other human child, only to freeze in her tracks when she saw Chara held a knife, _the_ knife right at Papyrus’ neck. This wasn’t the toy weapon from the ruins - no other knife had the same glow or blood red shadows that constantly rippled and danced across the surface of the blade.

Chara turned to face Frisk, a sadistic smirk spread across her face. At the sight of the other human, her smile grew impossibly wide, showing off her white teeth and glowing red eyes. There was something off about her, her body swaying slightly - jerking involuntarily in ways muscles didn’t move - even as the human child held her ground with her knife a breath away from the skeleton’s neck bone. However, before Frisk could even properly reflect on the unnatural twitching, Chara’s spoke, her words echoing as if it were a chorus of voices rather than her own.

“YoU aLWayS weRe So pREdicTAble, _pARTner_.”

“Hold it right there, human,” Sans said, startling Frisk. Frisk had been so focused on Undyne and Papyrus she failed to notice his presence. She noticed too how his eye glowed and his hand was extended towards Chara, but nothing was happening save for a bead of sweat forming on his brow. His magic grasped for Chara’s soul, but he could no more grasp it than take hold of the ocean.

In spite of the obvious strain on his face and the sweat beading his brow, Sans tried to sound casual, failing to hide his fear. “Hey, uh, I don’t know what you think you’re gonna accomplish by swinging that thing at my brother all the time, but I promise you, if you don’t put that knife away, you’re going to have a bad time.”

“S-Sans, wait,” Papyrus said, his voice shaking. “I’m sure we can simply talk with this human, just like we did with Frisk, and-”

Papyrus never got to finish his statement, as the knife sliced his neckbone neatly in half, causing his head to fall from his body as it went limp and burst into a cloud of dust. All the while, Chara fixed her gaze firmly on Frisk, her expression never wavering.

Sans’ eyes went dark as, for all his words, the fight left him completely.

“ _No_!” Frisk shrieked as she watched in horror as Papyrus turned to dust.

“What is going on!?” Toriel demanded as she hurried to the scene, having lagged behind the others as the dog sentries followed her. “What is the meaning-” All at once, the wind was knocked out her as her eyes settling on the twisted human before her and recognition hit her harder than any attack. She stumbled to a stop, her expression going blank as her hands fell limply to her sides. “C… Chara?”

“P… Papyrus…!” Undyne gasped, her crushed armor making every breath labored. “Damn you…!”

“S-stand back, your majesty!” Doggo shouted as the guards moved between their queen and this newest threat, all drawing their weapons.

Chara didn’t acknowledge her mother at all, nor any of the other monsters. She kept her gaze firmly on Frisk, a haunting giggle escaping her. Even the humorous sound was distorted, more so than normal, but the feelings behind them were unmistakable.

“I-it’s fine!” Papyrus said even as his head too began to crumble away. “It’s fine, I-I am sure we can still-”

With a sick _crunch_ , Chara stomped on Papyrus’ skull, which crumbled as dust coated her foot.

Frisk’s gaze fell to the dusty orange scarf fluttering in the breeze and the merciless heel grinding it into the snow. There was no question what she needed to do.

Frisk reset.

\---

Before, in the void, Frisk would easily find her save file - a nice and neat font framed in a box hanging in the air. However, as the human child appeared in the blackness of the abyss this time, something was undeniably different. Instead of Chara’s sick representation of a videogame that Frisk had become so familiar with, she instead found nearly a dozen stars - the same golden stars that allowed her to save.

“What is this?” Frisk asked aloud, instinctively expecting to hear Chara respond with some sort of sarcastic or sadistic explanation. Only silence answered her, and even the abyss seemed to swallow her voice almost immediately.

A sickening sense of trepidation weighed down Frisk’s steps as she approached the nearest star. The game had changed and she had no choice but to play.

With determination in her heart, Frisk touched the star and the abyss fell away.

Frisk found herself back at the Ruins, standing before the small mound of ground she regarded as Flowey’s hill. It was disorienting to appear someplace that wasn’t one of her usual save points, particularly one that suggested that she was going to have to confront Flowey again. She fully expected him to pop up out of the ground any second now and taunt her for Papyrus’ death, but he never appeared.

His absence set Frisk on edge, but she couldn’t let it keep her still. As she stepped cautiously forward, her mind raced to figure out how to stop Chara and save everyone when something was amiss with her power to reset.

A single step was all Frisk took into the staircase entryway before she froze dead in her tracks. Upon the blood red pile of leaves was an all too familiar regal purple gown covered in dust.

“Boy howdy, ain’t that a _shame_?” a familiar voice chirped, seconds before Flowey appeared from beneath the ground to stand beside Frisk. “Getting cut down so _ruthlessly_ like that…” He turned to grin at Frisk, even as the human didn’t look at him. “If _only_ you hadn’t been standing around stupidly, you _might_ have been able to save her.”

Frisk twitched at the cruel barb. Of course Flowey would show up to twist the knife; the only question was _when_ his words would strike. It was pointless to ask him if he cared at all about Toriel’s murder. “Asriel-”

“ _Aw_ , you’re still trying to call for _him_?” Flowey asked as his face warped into a horrifying visage of teeth. “Hate to break it to you, but Asriel’s been dead for a long, long, _long_ time.” In an instant his face turned cartoonishly adorable as he winked. “It’s just little ole me, Flowey.”

Frisk had to pause to take a deep, shuddering breath to calm herself, but her fingers still curled into fists. “Don’t you remember me at all?”

Flowey stared hard at Frisk for several moments before he tilted his head, sticking his tongue out. “Oh, _sure_ I remember you! You’re the _idiot_ who just let someone die~!”

Frisk closed her eyes so that she wouldn’t have to stare at that mocking face out of her peripheral vision. “Just what is it about being on the surface that takes away your memories when we come back?” she muttered more to herself than Flowey, as she knew any answer he gave her would coated in poisonous thorns with nothing of substance at its core.

Flowey barely got a chance to let out a syllable before Frisk turned to him, her brown eyes blazing with determination.

“Even if you forget me a million times, I’ll still save you every time, Asriel!” Frisk shouted. “Even if this cycle goes on forever, I’ll never stop fighting to bring us all to the surface again. I promise.”

Flowey hesitated, taken aback by Frisk’s words. He was quiet for a moment before he gave a derisive snort. “You’re such an idiot.” With that, he disappeared into the ground from whence he came, cutting off any opportunity Frisk had to reply.

Frisk stared at the empty ground covered in dust and leaves as a shuddering breath escaped her. She turned to Toriel’s gown, her gaze lingering on the dust covered gash, always in the same spot.

“I’m sorry, Mom,” Frisk said. For once she was able to say the words aloud after Toriel died instead of only thinking them in a torturous silence.

After wiping the dampness from her eyes, Frisk reset and returned to the abyss.

The next star Frisk touched created a cruel transition not unlike her battles with Omega Flowey. In one instant she stood in blackness and the next she found herself suspended by cold magic seizing her soul, staring down into Sans’ pitch black eye sockets in the snowy woods.

“That’s a weird expression you’ve got there,” Sans noted, his dark eyes scrutinizing the human scathingly. “You’ve got the face of someone who’s been through this before.”

Though initially disoriented, Frisk immediately realized where this reset loaded her and instinctively looked past Sans to see Papyrus sprawled out on the ground, alive, but not yet completely healed.

“N-nevermind that!” Frisk sputtered as she tried to get her bearings in spite of Sans’ dark expression. “I’m not the one who hurt Papyrus! Chara was, and if we don’t work together to defend each other, she’s going to kill him again!”

“‘Again’?” Sans repeated darkly. As deep as his anger was, the shift in the human’s attitude was enough to give him pause. She seemed sincere in her fear, but it was clear that the emotion wasn’t directed at him.

Frisk unsuccessfully suppressed a grimace at how suspicious one word could be, but forced herself to accept Sans’ anger towards her the same as choking down awful medicine. “The timeline keeps repeating because of a human called Chara. She wants to kill _everyone,_ and she won’t stop until she does!”

“That a fact?” Sans said slowly as he assessed Frisk’s words and body language.

“YeS, THat iS a FAct.”

There was no chance for Sans or Frisk to react to the distorted voice beyond a flinch and a glowing eye when _the_ knife streaked past Frisk’s face, carving a notch into her ear and cutting away strands of hair in its deadly path. However, it was clear she was never the target, as the blade buried itself to the hilt into Sans’ left eye socket, extinguishing the dual colored glow as the tip burst through the back of his skull with a spray of dust and bone shards.

Sans didn’t even have the chance to cry out, but Frisk saw a glimpse of his remaining eye carrying shock before he burst to dust. His magic died a second later, dropping Frisk roughly to the ground in a cloud of dust and heavy clothing.

“S-Sans?” Papyrus asked weakly, his disoriented mind grasping to understand what had just transpired. It took him a moment to register the sight before him, tiny fragments of his own brother’s corpse disappearing in the wind and snow, before shock and horror became clear on his face. “Sans-!?”

Another giggle escaped Chara, but her entertainment was not Papyrus’ shock and horror. The sight of Frisk covered in dust was what made her smile widen and twist into a wicked curve of white teeth.

Frisk coughed up the dust and felt like she was going to vomit from knowing what she had breathed in. She sat up, trying to get away from the dust that stuck to her with the melting snow as a black pit of hatred bubbled up inside of her. “Stop it. Just stop it, Chara! You’ve already killed everyone hundreds of times! Thousands! What more do you want?!”

Chara didn’t respond verbally, instead holding Frisk’s gaze as she moved her arm about to point the knife at Papyrus, even as the injured skeleton struggled to get to his feet.

That gesture said it all; Frisk reset before Chara could have the pleasure of murdering Papyrus once again.

Chara’s smirking face disappeared into the darkness as Frisk returned to the abyss, where the twinkling stars awaited her.

Again and again and again Frisk used different stars to load another save, but it all led to death. Doggo was sliced across the eyes as they arrived at his station. Lesser Dog was decapitated while Frisk had her hand on his head. Dogamy and Dogressa’s entrance repeated twice for Chara to kill one then the other with stabs to the chest and back respectively so that each of them could see their lover die. Even Greater Dog had the knife driven into his head before his initial emergence from his hiding spot in the snow.

Each moment was like a stab in to Frisk’s own heart, inflicting an injury that followed her through each reset. It made her dread each one, knowing what was about to happen even as she desperately fought against it. So when the scenery once again changed to the familiar field of flowers where she had first fallen, she instantly leapt to her feet and rushed forward into the darkened cavern to reach Toriel before she had to watch her mother die again.

Frisk found herself immediately greeted by the familiar scene of Flowey on his hill, waiting for her as he always did after every full reset that brought her back to the very beginning.

“Howdy!” Flowey said, with great - and completely false - cheer. “I’m Flowey! Flowey the Flower-”

“Asriel!” Frisk shouted, skidding to a halt just short of the homicidal flower. “Stop it! You don’t have to keep watching people die to feel anything! You don’t have to hurt anyone anymore!”

A slash of the knife ended Flowey’s mockery, carving a jagged cut between his eyes. His entire body twitched, sounds of confusion eeking from his mouth as he belatedly registered the pain, before a cruel heel slammed into the divide, roughly tearing the flower in half through sheer blunt force.

Chara ground her heel into the remnants of Flowey seconds before he burst into dust, her eyes still focused exclusively on Frisk. Her twisted smirk taunted her ‘partner’ as her eyes reflected not only amusement in its crimson surface but defiance - _daring_ Frisk to stop her.

Anger and frustration bubbled over inside of Frisk and she barely managed the willpower needed to fight the urge to lunge at Chara and throttle the demon, screaming and crying. She knew all too well that violence was not the answer.

Unfortunately, when it came to Chara, neither was mercy.

“I’m going to stop you, Chara,” Frisk promised with roughly hewn words ground out between clenched teeth.

Chara’s only response was a giggle, her lips curling up in a sneer.

There was nothing more for Frisk to say before she reset once more.

As the world came into focus, Frisk found herself in the chilly yet familiar surroundings of Snowdin. The disorientation lasted only a second before she realized that Toriel was standing beside her, holding her hand tightly as she glared at the shrugging skeleton in front of them.

“Eh, don’t worry about it,” Sans said. “I doubt someone like the royal scientist would be interested in taking orders from a random human anyway. Maybe all she needs is to get the order directly from royalty, like, say, the queen.”

Toriel’s expression remained just as hard as the last time as she met Sans’ casual barb with suspicious disapproval before she gave a nod. “Perhaps that is precisely what I should do.”

Frisk jerked as she immediately recognized the scenario, and realized what was about to happen next.

“Great,” Sans said, seemingly unperturbed by his queen’s disapproval as his grin widened. “How about I show you-”

Frisk took off, releasing Toriel’s hand. She heard her mother call after her, and glimpsed at Sans’ startled face when she ran past him, but she only shouted. “Chara’s after Papyrus and Undyne!”

There was no time for further explanation. Frisk tore through the town, jumping over presents in the square and dodging past monsters milling about as they stared after in confusion. Only her instincts brought her to a halt once she reached outside of town when a blur of motion and the familiar sound of something sharp cutting through air was the only warning she got before a spear of magic landed in front of her. She barely had a moment to focus on the weapon as she skidded a few extra inches across the snowy ground before she was forced to dodge an entire volley of magical spears.

The black armored profile of Undyne immediately greeted Frisk, her red ponytail sticking out the back like a tassel as she held another spear at the ready, crouched and obviously hostile. She didn’t have to do more than point as her magic created countless jutting spears beneath the human’s surprisingly nimble feet.

“Wait! Wait, wait, wait, wait!” came Papyrus’ panicked cries, drawing attention to him as he waved his hands. “There’s been a mistaaaake! That’s the _good_ human!”

Although Frisk was relieved that Undyne wasn’t injured and Papyrus wasn’t _dying_ , she couldn’t give it more than a passing thought before she was forced to jump and run from the magic erupting from the ground and trying to skewer her.

Through the frightening visage of her helmet, Undyne’s voice came with a metallic echo that made her sound grave. “There’s no such thing as a good human, Papyrus. Go home and let me take care of this.”

It was Undyne’s turn to be blindsided this time. A burst of fire flew right by Frisk with deadly accuracy before slamming into the fish woman. It was not the tame sort that Toriel had used against Frisk, but a roaring inferno that promised only pain as it began to melt the armor.

Toriel stood beside Frisk in an instant as the human panted for breath, the boss monster’s fist clenched as it was engulfed in flames. Her eyes seemed to blaze as well as they glared down at the downed Undyne. “You will take care of _nothing_.”

Undyne let out a groan as her now warped helmet fell off, but she recovered quickly with sharp teeth curving into an almost manic smile. “Oh hell, yeah! And here I thought this fight would be be bor…” She paused as she took another look at Toriel. “Wait, you’re not a human.” Confusion immediately switched to anger as she jumped to her feet. “What’re you doing!? Go home! Don’t you know there’s a couple of dangerous humans running around!?”

Toriel gave a sweeping gesture of her hand, and a burst of fire surged out around her and Frisk. The snow immediately melted, turning into steam, as a ring of fire danced in an obvious threat. “The only dangerous one I see is _you_.”

Frisk attempted to step forward to get between Toriel and Undyne in case the captain of the guard decided to attack anyway, but the flames provided a barrier that was impossible for her to cross.

The unpleasant heat from the flames made Undyne wary, but she would not give a single inch. She directed the point of her spear directly at Toriel’s face. “Look, I don’t know who you are and what you think you’re doing with that human, but you’re standing in the way of everyone’s hopes and dreams!”

“Waaaaait!” Papyrus shouted again as he hurried over to the armored leader of the Royal Knights. “Undyne, that’s the _queen_! You can’t fight the _queen_! That would be...” The skeleton man’s jaw dropped as he clasped his hands to either side of his face. “Very _bad_!”

“I don’t care if she’s King Asgore!” Undyne snapped. “No one is gonna stop me from…” She paused for a moment to shift her gaze from Papyrus to Toriel and back. “Wait, did you say the queen? _The_ queen? The one who ran off to the ruins forever ago and never came back?”

Toriel’s eyes narrowed. “Who I am does not matter. I will not allow you - or that _fool_ you call a king - to harm my child.”

Undyne outright gawked at Toriel. “ _Your_ child? That’s a human!”

“ _My_ child,” Toriel repeated, her tone as dangerous as a knife.

Undyne let out a frustrated grunt. “Okay, look, lost queen, adoptive mother, _I don’t care_! We need seven human souls to break the barrier!” She directed the point of her spear to Frisk. “And that human right there is the last one we need! I’m not about to let anyone get in the way of our freedom.”

“You ‘do not care’?” Toriel asked as she held her hand out towards Undyne, a warning of what was to come if she so much as _sneezed_ in Frisk’s direction. “You ‘do not care’ that you are killing _innocent children_?”

Undyne let out a snort of laughter. “Right. _‘Innocent’_. Like the ‘innocent’ child that nearly killed Papyrus?”

“A-ah, but… they didn’t!” Papyrus said as he raised his fist triumphantly. “As you can see, the great Papyrus is still very much _alive_ , so that does not count!”

“Or ‘innocent’ like the humans that trapped us down here?” Undyne pressed, as though Papyrus hadn’t interrupted. “Or the humans that keep falling down here killing monsters until only King Asgore can put a stop to them?”

“The other humans killed monsters?” Frisk whispered, shocked. Admittedly, she tried not to think of what happened to the six souls who had fallen before her, but the fact that the other humans chose to kill was as surprising as it was completely, tragically heartbreaking.

Not everyone had the determination to refuse to kill anyone.

“You say that as if the humans were not attacked _first_ ,” Toriel retorted, with surprising venom in her voice. “You attack those terrified children, then blame them when they defend themselves! Had you not instigated violence from the start, there would have been no bloodshed!” She net out a snort. “But clearly, that does not matter to you. You simply intend to twist the situation in order to defend yourselves - defend _Asgore_ \- even as it turns the Royal knights into nothing but murderers... _child killers_.” She then clenched her hand, the flames flickering about it as they glowed white. “And I suppose the ‘irony’ that you are proving the human’s fear of us to be _well founded_ would be lost on the likes of _you_.”

Undyne let out a derisive snort, her eye narrowing. “Heh. Figures the queen that ran away and hid for a century instead of standing up for her people would become a human-loving _traitor_! I’ll bet you armed the humans yourself hoping they’d kill King Asgore so you could take over, you _coward_!”

Things were spiraling out of control; Frisk she needed to diffuse it somehow, even if she knew that no mere words would ever convince Undyne to trust her. Only actions might prevent her friends from hurting each other and she could only think of one act that might make Undyne pause “H-hold it!” she shouted, raising her hands into the air, palms open. “We don’t need to fight. I’ll give myself up without a fight. You can take me as your prisoner to King Asgo-”

“You will do no such thing,” Toriel said as she moved in front of Frisk, without looking back at her. “I will not allow him - or _anyone else_ \- to kill yet another child! Let alone for such a foolish act of suicide!”

Frisk cringed at her failure even as she felt a swell of love for her mother’s fierce protectiveness of her.

“I never planned on taking prisoners anyway,” Undyne snarled as she held her spear in both hands, bouncing on her heels in anticipation of a fight. “Now go back to your hiding place! You heard the human - hand them over so I can bring their soul to King Asgore and finally break the barrier!”

“If you wish to fight, then so be it!” Toriel said, raising her voice as the fire intensified about her, further melting the snow and depriving Snowdin of its namesake as browned blades of grass and dirt appeared beneath the smoldering steam. The citizens who had dared to gather at the edge of town to gawk were quick to scamper from heat as suffocating as the mounting tension. Even the canine royal guard cowered far behind their furious queen, not daring to step between her and their leader. “Let us see how a _bullying coward_ such as you fairs against a _true_ opponent!”

Undyne laughed as she readied her spear. “Fine with me! I’m tired of talking anyway!”

Toriel narrowed her eyes. “As am I.” Without waiting for a response, she threw her hands up and sent another blast of fire at Undyne, blowing her backwards as the very ground itself turned to ash around her.

“This is bad, this is _very_ bad!” Papyrus sputtered as he clasped both his hands over the top of his head. “What am I supposed to do?” He then whirled to his brother, desperate. “Sans! What am I supposed to do!?”

Sans didn’t reply or even seemed to be paying attention. His eyes were closed, his breathing even with his head bowed. At first, Papyrus assumed he was in deep contemplation, but a gentle snore dispelled the illusion.

Papyrus jerked before he grabbed his brother by the collar of the dirty blue hoodie to shake him violently. “ _Sans_! How can you sleep at a time like this?!”

Sans opened an eye with a startled snort, but quickly recovered with an easy smile. “Sorry, bro. All this excitement just wore me out, I guess.”

“You… you lazy good for nothing!” Papyrus snapped before he released his brother and turned back to the fight. Even the other members of the royal guards cowered away from the fight, uncertain and a little afraid to choose between their captain and the queen. “I… it seems that _I_ , the great Papyrus, will be left to… to deal with this situation myself!”

The skeleton’s pomp and posturing would have had more impact, if he hadn’t immediately cringed back with a yelp from a burst of fire as it detonated nearby - though thankfully not near enough to do more than send his scarf fluttering in the aftershock.

“You go, bro,” Sans said placidly. He knew Undyne would never hurt Papyrus and given what he knew of Toriel, the queen would never forgive herself for harming someone as sweet and innocent as Papyrus.

Sans knew he wouldn’t.

Wreathed by flames, Frisk could only watch helplessly as Toriel and Undyne threw magical attacks at one another. There was no turn-based system to slow either of them down now that the facade of a videogame was gone, and the rate of attacks were dizzying. Any spears that came her way or tried to come up from the ground were instantly burned away by fire before she could even dodge. Even as Toriel created a mesmerizing display of complicated dancing flames, she still managed a perfect protection of the human child everyone wanted dead.

It was all too clear to Frisk how much Toriel held back during every battle between them, and even Asgore’s patterns paled in comparison. Her mother showed unimaginable power and control, which had never been more apparent than when Toriel had tried to discourage Frisk from her quest. Despite the constant hail of flames, it was only when Chara usurped control during moments that Frisk dropped her guard and threw them both into the flames to die that she was ever in any true danger.

And often those moments were meant not to torment Frisk, but Toriel herself - to shatter her confidence in her self-control, and make her kill the child she tried so hard to protect. The flames didn’t hurt nearly so much as the look of pure shock and horror Toriel had worn each time she saw Frisk die by _her_ magic.

While Undyne had, in previous resets, exiled the queen back to the ruins during her particularly gruesome failed runs, it was made all the more clear to Frisk that Toriel had gone willingly, without any sort of resistance. She had lacked the motivation - the determination - to keep fighting. But now, that those powers were in full force and aimed at Undyne with intent to save. Toriel was not holding back and fully in her element; she was not resigned or succumbing to nihilism. Her determination glistened in her eyes and the flames she summoned effortlessly with each gesture, focused wholeheartedly in protecting Frisk from the attacker before her.

Undyne may as well have been trying to stab the fire itself, for all the good it did her. Every spear she launched exploded upon collision with fireballs and though she used all her training with Asgore to prepare her for such patterns of attack, there were too many - a hell of flames coming at her on all sides that scorched her armor and skin, regardless of her strength and determination to fight.

Undyne tried to close the distance between them in an effort to physically assault the queen when it was clear distance attacks would fail, but the large boss monster was surprisingly quick to bring up a wall of flames, forcing Undyne to retreat before she ran headlong into it.

It became all the more clear that she was not fighting a monster, but a force of nature itself.

It was too much for Undyne and she knew it, but sheer stubborn pride kept her climbing back to her feet even as the heat seeped into her armor and turned it into an oven that baked her. Even as her back bowed from pain, body smoking, and her movements turned into a crawl, she refused to stay down. “I won’t… give up… on everyone’s dreams!”

A single ball of flame, less deadly than the others, smacked Undyne in the head like a newspaper swatting a dog that piddled on the carpet, and she fell backward.

Frisk felt her heart twist for Undyne, and she tugged on her mother’s robe. “Mom, that’s enough! Please. Undyne isn’t a bad person… I’ve made friends with her too… before time reset.”

Toriel paused at that, though her expression remained serious. However, even as she kept her deadly gaze on the fallen fish warrior, she lowered her hand to take Frisk’s in her own and give the child’s hand a reassuring squeeze. “Leave. _Now_.”

Undyne let out a hiss as she struggled in the heat as flames surrounded her with menacing promise. She couldn’t speak, but the murderous glare in her eye conveyed her feelings far better than any word could. It was only when the magical fire backed away enough for the air to cool around her that she could return to her feet, unsteady and weak. She shrugged off Papyrus when he offered a helping hand, but muttered a short word of thanks when he healed her wounds.

Toriel met Undyne’s glare with one of her own, neither wavering nor flinching. “And tell _Asgore_ that I am coming for him.”

There were no further words exchanged, just the sound of metal clanking against scorched ground as Undyne turned and stiffly walked away.

Although her life had been spared, Frisk still felt a surge of fear as she watched Undyne leave. “Undyne!” she shouted, causing the captain to halt, but not turn around. “Be careful. There’s another human who _is_ trying to kill monsters, so please warn everyone to take shelter and to not fight her - they won’t be able to beat her, and she won’t show them any mercy!”

A lone eye glared at Frisk from over Undyne’s shoulder, but only for a moment before the captain left. Although there were no words spoken, the look spoke volumes of a hatred of humankind that seeped deep into the underground from wrongs made centuries past, and a cry for justice and revenge that would not end with this defeat.

Toriel breathed heavily through her nose in a sigh. “I am sure she did not believe that you, in fact, are not the human to fear… but I suppose it does not matter. The results will still be the same.”

Frisk nodded ever so slightly as she watched the flames surrounding them wink out one by one. As long as everyone lived and reached the surface, the monsters could think whatever they wanted of her.

No matter the cost she paid in the end, Frisk would save everyone and stop Chara for good.


End file.
